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FLEETWOOD'S 

LIFE OF CHRIST. 



WITH 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS. 



A DEFENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, 

BY 

PHILIP DODDRIDGE, D.D. 



AN EXHORTATION TO, AND DIRECTIONS FOR, READING 
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, 

4 c. §c. $c. 



LONDON: 

II FISHER, R. FISHER, & P. JACKSON, NEWGATE STREET. 



<1°° 



■- -si 

PREFACE. 



The first and greatest object that should engage the attention of men is, the pursuit 
of that knowledge which tends to promote their welfare in this world, and their eternal 
happiness in that which is to come. But where is this knowledge to be gained ? In 
the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith in 
Christ Jesus, 2 Tim. iii. 15. In these the blessed Redeemer is revealed as the way, the 
truth, and the life; as the only foundation of hope, and the Mediator of the New Covenant. 
To him we are called to look for salvation, who alone can save our souls from death, 
and bring us to everlasting life. He is the grand pattern of sanctity, meekness, humility, 
and love, — the King of glory, and the Guide to righteousness. 

As, therefore, in our blessed Redeemer only rests the whole of our eternal salvation, 
let Him only engross our most serious attention ; and let the examples of his holy Apostles, 
who have sealed their faith with their blood, inspire us with resolution to be the servants 
of Christ, who condescended to suffer an ignominious and painful death, to save us from our 
sins, and the punishment due to our manifold offences. 

In seriously perusing the Life and Transactions of the great Redeemer of mankind, we 
shall here find those balmy sweets, those solid comforts, which, if cordially received, and 
properly attended to, will promote our felicity here, and secure to us eternal happiness 
hereafter. If we endeavour to pursue the divine system laid down by our blessed Saviour, 
there is no reason to doubt but faith will be accepted, and our obedience will be crowned 
with that reward which he has been pleased to promise to all those who imitate his glorious 
example. Our blessed Lord himself tells us, that if we are poor in spirit we shall gain the 
kingdom of heaven — if we mourn here, we shall be comforted — if we hunger and thirst 
after righteousness, we shall be filled. All true knowledge, virtue, and perfection, that 
a Christian can desire, or attain to, are contained in the doctrines and transactions of our 
Glorious Redeemer ; who teacheth us, that righteousness and holiness consist in the inward 



iv PREFACE. 

purity and integrity of the mind, and not barely in the outward shew of works — in a 
conscience void of offence, not in the pompous applause of men — in humility, not in 
ostentation — in contempt, not in pursuit, of worldly honours ; — and he farther teacheth us to 
love our enemies as well as our friends. Here we read of the nature of true faith ; 
of trusting in Christ alone ; and how we ought not to glory but in Him. Here we read also 
of the certainty of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and of 
life eternal. 

We most sincerely hope, that the perusal of this Work will produce that effect for which 
it is adapted, namely, the promotion of the cause of Christianity, and making mankind wise 
unto salvation. A serious attention to the Divine transactions contained in this History, 
will fill the mind with awful, though pleasing ideas ; banish every doubt ; confirm the reader 
in the most sublime truths ; and fill his soul with divine ecstacies. 

We shall only further observe, that in the execution of this Work we have endeavoured 
to improve the understanding, and warm the heart ; to inspire the mind with gratitude for 
the astonishing love of a dying Saviour, and to excite the soul to embrace his kind invitations 
of forgiveness, of happiness, and peace. 



INTRODUCTION. 



JL HERE are two things in the Life of Christ which should be carefully considered — the remarkable circumstances ii 
our Saviour's more public life, and his manner of teaching. 

" As to the former," says Bishop Law, " we cannot but observe a surprising mixture of humility and greatin 
dignity and self-abasement, in his general demeanour ; both which were equally instructive in their turns. Sometimes w< 
find him solemnly asserting his divinity ; at other times, the meekest and lowest of the sons of men : sometimes reminding 
his followers that he could command legions of angels, were it necessary ; at others apprising them, that he should be 
more destitute of common conveniencies than even the beasts of the field, or birds of the air : now telling them, that a 
greater than Solomon is among them; now washing his disciples' feet. Conscious of his own power and just prerogative, 
yet all submission to the powers in being ; complying with their laws and institutions, however hazardous or inconvenient 
to him; and paying their demands to the uttermost, though at the expense of a miracle. On some occasions publishing 
the character and office which he bore ; on others, carefully concealing them, in order to prevent the hasty misconstruction 
of his friends, to guard against the inveterate malice of his foes, and gain sufficient time to fix a good foundation for the 
faith of all. None more industrious and zealous in the cause of God ; none more indifferent and resigned in his own. He 
patiently endures the affronts and outrage to his person, and the frecpjent insults on his reputation, and intercedes for the 
forgiveness of his murderers : yet when his Father's honour is concerned, he vindicates it instantly ; and with uncommon 
warmth he publicly chastises the profaners of his temple, and threatens the severest punishment to such as would continue 
to blaspheme the Power and Spirit by which he was acting. He is ready to receive publicans and harlots; disdains not 
to converse with heretics and schismatics, persons most odious and of worst repute, but whom he sees to be truly penitent, 
and really desirous of instruction ; while he rejects the formal sanctimonious hypocrite, and reprimands the self-sufficient 
Pharisee. He detects, and with authority rebukes, the flattery of the proud designing querist; but satisfies each scruple, 
and resolves each doubt, of the sincere and humble searcher after truth, even before they can be intimated to him. He 
cherishes the broken-hearted ; comforts the desponding ; strengthens and supports the weak and wavering ; condescends 
to the infirmities of the meanest and most despicable that has the least spark of goodness in him, but never gratifies the 
vanity, or gives way to the petulancy, of the greatest. Vice from him meets with due discouragement and just reproof in 
all men, even those of the highest station ; virtue, with kind compassion, and a generous aid, in any of the lowest. 

" For, Secondly, this mixture of so various, and seemingly opposite, qualities, which constituted the foregoing contrast, 
did not proceed from any variation in his temper, but wholly in that of those among whom he conversed. He steadilv 
adheres to the same principle, and constantly pursues one plain and uniform design of doing all the service possible on all 
occasions, to all sorts of people; of doing it in the most agreeable manner too, whenever that becomes consistent with their 
real interest; sympathizing with men in their several states and dispositions; suiting himself to every one's circumstances 
and capacity ; applying to each part of the human constitution for access ; and watching every motion of the heart to gain 
admittance ; being himself ever affable, and easy of access to all that seriously applied to him ; accepting any invitation, 
and admitting every well-meant instance of respect; nay, making a voluntary offer of his company whenever he knew it 
would be useful and acceptable ; indulging the most secret wish of such as would receive an obligation from him ; and 
enhancing that by his obliging readiness to confer it. He submitted to the lowest offices for the sake of others, and was at 
every body's service that desired his assistance. He condescended to the meanest company, when he had a prospect of 
doing any good upon them ; and was content to lose the reputation of being a good man, that he might more effectually 
serve the ends of piety and goodness. 

" His conversation was free and familiar, open and undisguised, sober and rational ; his carriage, clear from all affected 
singularity, all rigid and unnatural severity, and any of those austere forbidding airs which used to be put on by others, 
and were apt to procure them so much reverence and awe upon the like occasion. His very miraculous works were no 
less evident signs of mercy, goodness, and generosity, than of power ; and equally adapted to convince men's understand- 
ings, and engage their affections, as to remove their maladies, or to relieve their wants : his first public miracle being no 
more than a proper act of kindness or humanity, in preventing the confusion of a poor relation, by a very seasonable sup- 
ply of what was wanting in his entertainment; which want perhaps could not otherwise have been conveniently supplied ; 
and was most probably occasioned by the extraordinary concourse he himself drew thither: his last, being no less than an 
instance of the highest and most undeserved compassion, in calmly healing the wound of one of those who came with 
eagerness to take away his life ; and thereby shewing, that with the same ease he could have delivered himself or de 
stroyed them. 

" The like might be observed in almost every other case, where he exerted an extraordinary power ; which he did in a 
manner that more particularly suited his own character. 

A " But 



INTRODUCTION. 



" But what we are now considering in the Life of Christ, is, its more ordinary course and common tenor ; which we find 
chiefly conversant in social duties, as they come into use most frequently, and are of the greatest and most general benefit 
to mankind ; and setting us a pattern of performing these, which was the most inviting to us, and most imitable by us, and 
the least capable of ever being mistaken or perverted; a pattern, not only of perfect innocence, but usefulness, in every 
circumstance and situation; of joining sometimes in such relaxations, both of mind and body, as would tend to the com- 
fort and support of each; such prudent moderate enjoyment of the good things of this world, as might convert them both 
to the present and future benefit of all who partook of them; of undergoing all the toils and difficulties, labours and dis- 
tresses, to which we are subject; of bearing all the evils and afflictions, the crosses and calamities, of life, with so much 
patience, constancy, and perseverance, as would prevent our sinking under them, and at length make us more than con- 
querors over them. A pattern of particular affection and esteem for friends; of general kindness and good-will towards 
enemies; of gratitude and love for all good offices; of meekness and a most forgiving temper under any ill usage; of strict 
obedience to superiors, either in church or state, so far as is consistent with our duty to the Supreme Being; mildness and 
condescension to inferiors, in whatsoever respect, or whatsoever degree; of justice, fidelity, benevolence, and charity, to 
all. In short, his whole life was a lecture of true practical piety, and each part of it pointed out some virtue proper for 
our imitation. 

" Which brings me in the next place to his manner of teaching; and this was likewise the most easy and natural that 
could be imagined. He generally draws his doctrine from the present occasion; the conversation that is passing; or the 
objects that surround him; from the most common occurrences and occupations; from the time of the day; the season 
of the year; the service of the Jewish church, or their solemnities; from some extraordinary accidents, remarkable places, 
or transactions ; and the like. 

" Thus, upon curing a blind man, he styles himself the light of the world; and admonishes the Pharisees of their spi- 
ritual blindness, and inexcusable obstinacy, in refusing to be cured and enlightened by him. On little children being- 
brought to him, he recommends the innocence and humility of that state as very proper qualities for all those who would 
be true members of his church; and, under the same figure, intimates the privileges that belong to all such. On being told 
that his mother and brethren came to seek him, he declares to all those among his disciples, who were desirous of learn- 
ing, and disposed to follow his instructions, that they were equally dear to him, and should be equally regarded by him, as 
his very nearest friends and relations. Beholding the flowers of the field, and the fowls of the air, he teaches his disciples 
to frame right and worthy notions of that Providence which supports them, and therefore will support beings of a rank so 
superior to them. Observing the fruits of the earth, he instructs them to judge of men by their fruits; and not to be 
themselves unfruitful under all the means of grace. Taking notice of their behaviour at a feast, he first gives general ad- 
vice therein to both the master and his guests; and from thence brings them to the consideration of a better entertainment, 
to which they were all invited; but of which few among them would be persuaded to render themselves worthy. From 
meat and drink, he leads them to the eating of his body, and drinking his blood, in a spiritual sense, — the being nourished 
with his doctrine, and partaking of his kingdom. From outward washing, — to the purifying of the heart, and cleansing the 
affections. From tasting of the fruit of the vine after the paschal supper, — to the celebration of an eternal festival of free- 
dom, rest, and happiness, in another world. From the salt, he takes occasion to acquaint them with the nature of their 
office, which was to season the minds of men, and keep them from the contagion of this world ; as well as to give them a 
true taste and relish for the enjoyments of that kingdom ; and at the same time reminds them of the absolute necessity for 
the duly executing this their office ; otherwise, instead of being the best, the purest, and most useful, they would become the 
most worthless, and incurable, and contemptible, among mankind. Those that were fishers, he teaches how to catch men; 
and shews them how far this would resemble their former employment, in taking of all kinds, both bad and good, which 
were at first inseparable, but would at length be carefully distinguished from each other. Seeing the money-changers, he 
exhorts his disciples to lay out their several talents to the best advantage. Being among the sheep-folds, he proves him- 
self to be the true Shepherd of souls, describing the particular in which his character exactly answered that of a good 
shepherd, even so far as to the giving or laying down his life for the sheep, i. e. exposing himself to certain death in the 
protection and defence of his flock from beasts of prey. Among vines, he discourses on the spiritual husbandman and 
vine-dresser; and draws a parallel between his vineyard and the natural one. At the sun-rising, he says, " I am the light 
of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life :" q. d. The sun rises to set 
again in a few hours, and may fail many of you, ere you have finished your journey; but every one that receives, and go- 
verns himself by, my doctrine, shall have a constant and continual guide, sufficient to direct him to eternal life. Upon the 
appearance of summer in the trees before him, he points out as evident signs of his approaching kingdom. At the season 
of fruits, he puts the Jews in mind that the time was come when some would be expected from them, in return of all the 
labour that had been bestowed upon them; and intimates the judgment that would shortly overtake all such among them 
as were found unprofitable. When the harvest comes on, he reminds them of the spiritual harvest, or the gathering of his 
church among men; admonishes them to labour diligently in that work, and add their prayers to heaven for success. From 
servants being made free on the Sabbatical year, he takes occasion to proclaim a greater and more noble freedom from the 
slavery of sin and bondage of corruption. And from the Jewish ceremony of fetching water on the last day of the feast of 
tabernacles, in commemoration of the miracle wrought for their fathers in the thirsty wilderness, he introduces an offer of 
that true living water which should be unto them a well springing up unto everlasting life — the gospel of immortal hap- 
piness and salvaiion, and the plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive. Upon 
a report that certain Jews were massacred by the Roman governor in the midst of their devotions, and that others had 
lately met with a no less untimely death by the fall of a tower in Jerusalem, he guards his audience against the common 

vices 



INTRODUCTION. 



vices of pride and censoriousness, in judging such as these to be the greatest sinners, because they were the most emi- 
nent sufferers; and exhorts them all to repent of their own crimes before the divine judgments overtook them; which would 
shortly fall upon that people, and be the more distinguishable, as coming attended with the very same circumstances. 
From the conspicuous eminence of a city standing on a mountain, he turns his discourse to the no less remarkable situa- 
tion of his own disciples. From the temple before him, he points to that of his body; which was most properly BO call< d 
from the Divinity residing in him. From Herod's unadvisedly leading his army out to meet the king of Arabia, who cai 
against him with superior forces and defeated him, a lesson is laid down to all who entered on the Christian warfare, that 
they should first well weigh, and carefully compute, the difficulties that attended it, before they were engaged in a matt< c 
of such consequence. From the robberies which were more particularly frequent in that age and place, he forms a beau- 
tiful story of a certain traveller, who fell among thieves, was stripped and wounded, and could find relief from none of Ins 
own country or persuasion, but met with it in one of those from whom he had the least reason to expect any, as being so 
much used to despise and hate that people, and their way of worship. From whence he forces his opponent to approve this 
amiable instance of humanity, even in the odious character of a Samaritan; and thereby shews him incontestibly, that the 
like good office would no less become a Jew in the like circumstances. And from what happened about this time, namely, 
that those who obtained the kingdom of Judea went to Rome to be confirmed in it; and, on their return, called such to account 
as had been wanting in their duty, and took ample vengeance on those who rebelled against them, (which was the case 
particularly under Archelaus, a few years before our Lord delivered that parable,) he gives his followers to understand, 
that after he had ascended into heaven, and taken full possession of his spiritual kingdom, he would come again in power 
and great glory, and not only punish that rebellious nation of the Jews with exemplary judgments, but at length condemn 
all those who willully opposed his gospel, as well as those who continued to neglect and disregard it. 

" Many more instances might be given, where Christ has formed his arguments and exhortations on such things as of- 
fered themselves to him, applying each most aptly to his present purpose ; and where this does not so immediately appear, 
we have reason to believe it chiefly owing to the omission of some circumstances in the history, as is observed by a very 
eminent writer. By this means he improved every thing into an useful moral ; made every object and event serve for a 
constant monitor and remembrance of his instructions ; which by these means must be more easily retained, than they could 
be by a long train of abstract reasoning, or under any artificial arrangement of a number of particulars laid down together. 

" Again, it is observable, that he delivered many things by way of story, or parable; a most engaging, and a most effec- 
tual method of instruction; gradually informing those who in reality were disposed for information, and not too violently 
disgusting those who were not. This way of teaching is of all others most apt to raise, and to keep up, the attention, and 
set each faculty of the mind on work ; it gains the easiest admission into both head and heart; it strikes the deepest; sticks 
the longest; gives most delight, by leaving something for the hearers themselves to discover; and disobliges least, by 
putting them upon making their own application. On these accounts it has been admired in all ages and nations from the 
beginning of the world ; and was particularly celebrated in the East. This, among many other excellent uses to which 
Christ applied it, in a manner the most delicate and masterly, was peculiarly fitted to insinuate such points, as more im- 
mediately opposed the prejudices or the inclinations of all those to whom Christ preached ; and which, though necessary 
for them to be apprised of. so far as might help afterwards to reconcile their thoughts to these things, when they were able 
to recollect that they had been intended and foretold from the beginning, yet were not at that time to be laid down in a 
more open direct manner ; such as related chiefly to the external circumstances of his person and doctrine, and the effects 
thereof upon both Jew and Gentile. 

" As to the fundamental parts of his religion, and his manner of declaring them ; both these were easy and obvious, such 
as the weakest and most ignorant (unless affectedly so) could not mistake ; and proposed in that plain and popular way, 
to which they were most accustomed, and in which they would be most likely to apprehend him; and it is worth remark- 
ing, that wherever his words seem capable of different senses, we may with certainty conclude that to be the true one 
which lay most level to the comprehension of his auditors, allowing for those figurative expressions which were so frequent 
and familiar with them, and which therefore are no exceptions to this general rule ; this necessary canon of interpretation, 
which of all others, I think, wants most to be recommended. 

" The bulk of his doctrine was of a practical nature, always pertinent to the case in hand, and of an immediate and ap- 
parent tendency to the most beneficial purposes; and he is so far from seeking reputation by an artful and elaborate man- 
ner of explaining it, that he seems barely to propose each point, together with its proper sanction, and leaves it to shine 
forth by its own light. 'Tis neither versed in any nice subtle speculations, nor involved in pompous paradoxes, nor adorn- 
ed with flowers of rhetoric. We find it free from all ostentatious and unnatural flights, as well as from that load of super- 
stitious rites and slavish ceremonies which encumbered every other system ; consisting of solid and substantial duties ; con- 
taining general comprehensive rules to try them by; and grounded on such never-failing principles of action, as must 
quickly enable his disciples to determine for themselves, and judge aright in each particular case : as in that of the sab- 
bath; which, like all other solemnities, was instituted for the sake of man; and therefore should be made subservient to 
his good; and, in that, to the glory of his Maker, which are inseparable from each other. In meats and drinks, and every 
thing, by consequence, of the same kind; which, as being merely external things, must likewise be of an indifferent nature, 
and therefore could not of themselves defile a man. In that of oaths, the several kinds whereof were really of the same 
import, as including the same virtual appeal to God, and therefore must needs be of equal force, and should alike exclude 
all fraudulent evasive artifices. In that of vows, which bind only to things otherwise innocent at least, and by which none 
ever could exempt themselves from duties of a prior and perpetual obligation. In that of contracts, and more especially 

the 



INTRODUCTION. 



the great general one of matrimony, which ought not to be rashly violated by either party, or dissolved for any cause less 
than such an one as proves inconsistent with the very foundation and origin thereof, e. g. fornication or adultery; and 
by the universal rule, of mercy being preferable to sacrifice, whenever a moral and positive precept interfere with one 
another. 

" Such doctrine must appear not only excellent in itself, when taken independently, but more especially so in the cir- 
cumstances under which it was delivered; as fully obviating the several false maxims, and fallacious glosses, advanced by 
the Jewish teachers of our Saviour's time ; in which respect it must be doubly useful as an instruction in truths of the last 
importance, and a guard against so many popular errors; and maybe considered as another instance of his exquisite 
manner of accommodating things, both to the general benefit of mankind, and the particular exigencies of his hearers. 

" Lastly, our Saviour's whole discourse and way of arguing must carry something of a peculiar force and poignancy 
along with it, and be attended with extraordinary degrees both of conviction and astonishment, as he knew thoroughly 
what was in man, and therefore could speak to his heart directly; and needed not that any man should either ask him, or 
inform him of any thing; as he saw into the most secret thoughts and purposes of all those whom he had to deal with; 
and often shewed them plainly that he did so, by removing the latent prejudices of his weaker friends, and obviating their 
several doubts and difficulties as they arose in their own minds, before they durst give utterance to them, by answering- 
such objections as had been made only in private, or at least out of his hearing; by refuting every plausible pretence, and 
laying open the most artful stratagems of his inveterate enemies; detecting their hypocrisy, exposing their true aim, and 
thereby cutting off all possibility of reply; on which account his word must needs be " quick and powerful, and sharper 
than any two-edged sword." — In this respect too it might well be said, " Never man spake like this man." Many instances 
whereof will occur upon a diligent perusal of the Gospels. 

" Thus did Christ live, and teach; shewing himself as much superior to the rest of the world in each of these respects 
as he did in his miracles." 



THE LIFE 

OF 

OUR BLESSED LORD AND SAVIOUR 



JESUS CHRIST. 



CHAP. I. 

Presage of the Birth of Christ. — Prediction 
of the Birth of John the Baptist. — Saluta- 
tion of the Blessed Virgin by the Angel. — 
Visitation of the Virgin Mary to Eliza- 
beth. — Birth of the Baptist. 

l^TO event that ever did, or perhaps 
will, happen, can more remarkably 
display the wisdom and power of the great 
Jehovah, than the glorious manner in 
wh'ch he brought life and immortality to 
light, by the gospel of his only Son, mani- 
fested in the flesh. 

History, as it refers merely to human 
events, is a pleasing and instructing sub- 
ject; but that which relates to our immor- 
tal interest, certainly claims our most seri- 
ous regard. 



The mind of man cannot be more de- 
lightfully employed than in the contem- 
plation of the wisdom and goodness of the 
Creator of the universe, who, by means 
the least thought of and imagined, con- 
firmed and established that glorious Gos- 
pel, which points out the only foundation 
of a sinner's hopes of eternal salvation 
Notwithstanding the strength and number 
of its enemies, the church of Christ grew 
from the most inconsiderable beo innings, 
to an immense fabric or building in the 
Lord ; nor shall the united efforts of earth 
and hell be able to prevail against it. As 
it was planted, so it was reared, by an 
almighty hand, which, like the careful 
husbandman, pruned and cultivated each 
tender sprig, till it arrived at full perfec- 
tion ; or, to use the words of our blessed 
Lord, the least of all seeds grew up and waxed 



6 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



a great tree, and spread out its branches, and 
filled the earth. 

Thus prevailed eternal truth : nor could 
the inveterate Jews, or superstitious Hea- 
thens, resist its progress, though Herod and 
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and peo- 
ple of Israel, gathered themselves together 
against the Lord, and against his Anointed : 
for the doctrine of God confounded the 
wisdom of the one, and overcame the folly 
of the other. 

If we survey the stupendous works of 
creation, we shall find that few arrived at 
perfection at once. This observation is 
amply confirmed by the various produc- 
tions in the natural, and changes in the 
moral world. The Supreme Being, who 
conducts all his operations according to 
his infinite wisdom, appears to have re- 
tained the same maxim in regulating his 
kindest dispensations to the sons of men. 
The divine will was not revealed, at first, 
in its clearest evidence and fullest splen- 
dour ; the dawn, in a spiritual as well as 
in a natural sense, preceded the meri- 
dian glory. The former revelation was 
but a type or earnest of the latter, and, 
in comparison with it, intricate and mys- 
terious. 

The all-gracious God, as it seemed best 
to his unerring wisdom, was pleased, by 
degrees, to open and unfold his glorious 
counsels ; and man, by degrees, attained 
to the knowledge of the great plan of sal- 
vation, and the means used by its great 
Author to promote and establish it. 

Some time before the incarnation of the 
blessed Jesus, an opinion prevailed among 
the pious part of the Jews, that the great 
Jehovah would condescend to favour them 
with a clear revelation of his divine will, 
by the mission of some eminent person, 
qualified from above to instruct them in 
the same. This opinion was founded on 



the predictions of the ancient prophets, 
who had described, with the utmost beauty 
and clearness, the person, character, and 
glory, of the Messiah appointed by God, 
in his own time, to declare his eternal 
counsels to mankind. 

Relying on the fulfilment of these pro- 
phecies, the devout persons among the 
Jews imagined the time appointed by God 
near at hand, and that the promised Mes- 
siah would shortly make his appearance, 
and therefore are said to have waited night 
and day for the consolation of Israel. These 
people, at that time grievously oppressed 
by the Roman power, and consequently 
anxious of regaining their liberty, as well 
as revenging themselves on their tyranni- 
cal oppressors, waited the accomplishment 
of the prophecies with the most solicitous 
desire. But this opinion of the approach 
of a general Deliverer extended much far- 
ther than the country of the Jews: for, 
through their connections with so many 
countries, their disputes with the learned 
men among the Heathens, and the trans- 
lation of the Old Testament into a lan- 
guage now almost general, their religion 
greatly prevailed in the East, and conse- 
quently their opinion that a Prince would 
appear in the kingdom of Judea, who 
would dispel the mists of ignorance, de- 
liver the Jews from the Roman yoke, and 
spread his dominion from one end of the 
world to the other. 

While the eastern world was fraught 
with these sanguine hopes, the angel Ga- 
briel (who had appeared to Daniel the 
prophet, with certain information as to 
the period of the Messiah's coming, as well 
as his transactions in this lower world,) was 
sent to Zacharias, a pious priest, while he 
was executing his office before God, in 
the order of his course, (which was to burn 
incense when he went into the temple of 

the 



AND SAVIOUR 



JESUS CHRIST. 



7 



the Lord,) to foretell that a child should 
spring from him and his wife Elizabeth, 
(though they were stricken in years,) who 
should be endowed with extraordinary 
gifts from Heaven, and honoured with 
being; the forerunner of the Saviour of the 
world. 

Zacharias, when he saw the angel, 
though he probably knew him to be of 
heavenly extraction, could not judge the 
subject of his mission, and therefore dis- 
covered a mixture of fear and surprise ; 
but the heavenly ambassador cheered his 
desponding soul with this kind address : 
Wear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, 
and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, 
and thou shalt call his name John. That he 
waited day and night for the consolation 
of Israel, he well knew ; which is all we 
can understand by his prayer being heard ; 
for it was unnatural for him to think that 
he and his wife Elizabeth, who were ad- 
vanced in years, should have a son ; nay, 
he intimates his doubt concerning it in 
these words : Whereby shall I know this ? 
for I am an old man, and my wife well 
stricken in years. Besides, he was a priest 
of the course of Abia, whose particular 
office was to pray, in behalf of the people, 
for public and national blessings ; so that 
it is very reasonable to think, that on all 
occasions of public worship he prayed 
most earnestly for the accomplishment of 
the prophecies relative to the appearance 
of the long-expected Messiah, who was 
promised as a general blessing to all the 
nations of the earth. 

That this was the great subject of his 
prayer, appears from the declaration of 
Gabriel: The prayer thou hast directed 
with sincerity to an Almighty ear, con- 
cerning the coming of the Messiah, is 
heard ; and, behold, thy wife Elizabeth shall 
bear thee a son, who shall prepare the way 



for the mighty Redeemer of Israel. The 
good old priest was as much astonished at 
the subject of the mission, as he was at 
the appearance of the messenger ; and 
esteeming it impossible that his wife, thus 
advanced in years, should conceive a son, 
weakly demanded a sign, to confirm his 
belief in the fulfilment of the promise, 
though he knew the authority of the angel 
was derived from the God of truth. But 
as it is the lot of humanity to err, Zacha- 
rias had, for that time, forgot that nothing 
was impossible to Omnipotence, as well 
as that it was not the first time the aged 
were caused to conceive, and bear chil- 
dren. The least reflection would have 
reminded him, that Sarah conceived and 
bore Isaac, when she was far advanced in 
years; and that Samuel was born of a 
woman, who had been long reputed, and 
even called, barren. 

His curiosity was, indeed, gratified, but 
in a manner that carried with it, at once, 
a confirmation of the promise, and a pun- 
ishment of his unbelief. As he had ver- 
bally testified his doubt of the fulfilment 
of the prediction of the angel, he was pun- 
ished with the loss of his speech, which 
was to continue to the very day in which 
the prediction should be accomplished ; 
BeJiold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to 
speak, until the day that these things shall be 
performed, because thou believest not my words, 
which shall be fulfilled in their season. 

Zacharias soon received an awful tes- 
timony of the divinity of the mission of 
Gabriel, who was no sooner departed than 
he was struck dumb ; for when he came 
to pray in the course of his office, during 
the oblation of his incense, he could not 
utter a word ; and was under a necessity 
of making signs to the people that an angel 
had appeared to him in the temple, and 
that he was deprived of the faculty <>i 

speech, 



8 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



speech, as a punishment for his doubting 
the fulfilment of an event which had been 
foretold concerning him. 

Soon after Zacharias departed to his 
own house, (the days of his ministration 
being accomplished,) his wife Elizabeth, 
according to the prediction of the angel, 
conceived, and retired to a private place, 
where she lived five months in the unin- 
terrupted exercise of piety, devotion, and 
contemplation on the mysterious provi- 
dence of the Almighty, and his amazing 
goodness to the sinful children of men. 

When Elizabeth was advanced six 
months in her pregnancy, the same hea- 
venly ambassador was sent to a poor vir- 
gin, called Mary, who lived in obscurity 
in Narazeth, under the care of Joseph, to 
whom she was espoused. This man and 
woman were both lineally descended from 
the house of David, from whose loins it was 
foretold the great Messiah should spring. 

The Virgin being ordained by the Most 
High to be the mother of the great Saviour 
of the world, was saluted by the angel in 
most respectful terms: Hail! thou that 
art highly favoured ; the Lord is with thee : 
blessed art thou among women! Such an 
address, from so exalted a being, greatty 
alarmed the meek and humble Virgin ; to 
allay whose fear, and to encourage whose 
hope, the angel related, in most sublime 
terms, the subject of his embassy ; which 
was, to assure her, that she was chosen of 
God to the greatest honour which could 
be conferred on a mortal, and which would 
perpetuate her memory ; an honour no 
less than that of being the mother of the 
promised and long-expected Messiah, who 
upon earth should be called Jesus, because 
he should save his people from their sins, 
be the restorer of human nature, and the 
procuring cause of eternal bliss to sinners, 
who had forfeited the favour, and incurred 



the resentment, of an offended God : that 
this divine person was to be considered as 
the Son of the Most High God ; to whom 
should be given, by his Almighty Father, 
a throne in the heavenly kingdom, on 
which he should preside, and which (being 
the whole church of Christ, the house of 
Jacob, the spiritual Israel, or the kingdom 
of the Messiah) should continue for ever 
and ever. 

The astonished Virgin, unmindful that 
Isaiah had long since prophesied, that a 
virgin should conceive and hear a son, thought 
her virginity an insurmountable barrier to 
the fulfilment of the prophecy, especially 
as such an event had never occurred since 
the creation of the world ; and therefore 
required of the angel an explanation of 
the manner in which such a circumstance 
could be effected. 

This desire by no means implies her not 
remembering, that with God all things 
were possible, but only serves to prove the 
weakness of her apprehension on the one 
hand, or her diffidence and sense of her 
own unworthiness on the other. 

The angel, therefore, perceiving the 
uprightness of her disposition, notwith- 
standing some little proof of human weak- 
ness and shortness of sight, vouchsafed an 
immediate answer to her inquiry : The 
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ; 
or, in other words, this miraculous event 
shall be brought about by the aid of the 
Holy Spirit, and wonderful exertion of the 
power of the Most High. As thy concep- 
tion shall be effected by the immediate 
influence of the Holy Ghost ; therefore 
also that holy thing, which shall he born of 
thee, shall be called the Son of God. To con- 
firm her faith in the glorious message, the 
heavenly messenger observed to her, that 
her cousin Elizabeth, notwithstanding her 

advanced 



AND SAVIOUR 



JESUS CHRIST. 



9 



advanced years, and reputed barrenness, 
was above six months pregnant, assigning 
this incontestable argument for the mira- 
culous incident : For with God nothing shall 
be impossible. 

This reply not only removed all her 
doubts and fears, but rilled her with inex- 
pressible joy, so that she even anticipated 
the promised felicity : for she, with the 
rest of the daughters of Jacob, had long 
indulged the hope of being selected by 
God to be the honoured mother of the Sa- 
viour of Israel; and therefore, on her being 
assured that such happiness was destined 
her by the great Disposer of all events, she 
thus expressed her reliance on the fulfil- 
ment of the Divine promise, and perfect 
acquiescence in the will of the Almighty : 
Behold the handmaid of the Lord! be it unto 
me according to thy word. 

The angel had no sooner departed, than 
Mary set out for the mountainous country 
of Judea, though at a very remote distance 
from Nazareth, in order to rejoice with 
her cousin Elizabeth in the joyful news 
slie had received from the an gel concern- 
ing her. The rapture and delight which 
filled the minds of Mary and Elizabeth, 
on the occasion of this salutation, can 
alone be conceived from the affecting- de- 
scription recorded by the evangelist Luke, 
who is peculiar for the beauty of his style, 
and elegance of his expressions. 

That evangelist writes, that the salu- 
tation of Mary had such an effect upon 
Elizabeth, that on hearing of the miracu- 
lous event which had befallen the Virgin, 
the babe leaped within her ; and that she, 
being inspired with a holy delight on the 
approaching prospect of the nativity of 
her Saviour, exclaimed with rapture, And 
whence is this to me, that the mother of my 
Lord should come to me? Luke i. 43. Nor 
did her ecstasy cease with this token of 



humility and joy on the important event, 
in the ardour of which she evinced that 
prophetic influence, which, while it amazed 
the blessed Virgin, could not fail of esta- 
blishing her belief in what the angel had 
foretold ; for she repeated the very words 
expressed by the angel in his salutation of 
the holy Virgin, Blessed art thou among 
women : together with a quotation from the 
Psalms, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. 

Mary conceived the seed long promised 
and earnestly desired ; the seed in w hom 
all the nations of the earth were to be 
blessed, according to the words of the 
Psalmist : His name shall continue as long as 
the sun ; and men shall be blessed in him : all 
nations shall call him blessed. The happy 
Virgin, catching the holy flame from the 
aged Elizabeth, broke out into an humble 
acknowledgment of her unworthiness, and 
the wonderful grace of the Almighty, in 
appointing her to the exalted honour of 
bearing the Redeemer of Israel ; as ex- 
pressed in those well-known words, My 
soul doth magnify the Lord, SfC. 

Thus having, by this visit, confirmed 
herself in the belief of the prediction of 
the angel Gabriel, w r hen the period of 
Elizabeth's pregnane}'' approached, she 
returned to Nazareth, having resided in 
Judea about three months. 

Soon after the departure of Mary, Eli- 
zabeth brought forth a son, the appointed 
harbinger of the King of glory ; and on 
the eighth day after his birth, according 
to the Judaical custom, he was circum- 
cised, and called, agreeably to the appoint- 
ment of the angel, John, alluding, in the 
Hebrew tongue, to the gracious display 
of the wisdom and goodness of God, who 
was about to manifest himself to the world 
hy the spreading of the gospel of his Si n, 
of whom this John was the appointed fore- 
runner. 

C The 



10 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



The promise being thus fulfilled, the 
aged priest was restored to his speech, and 
immediately broke out into praise and rap- 
ture at the marvellous works of God, in 
strains which astonished all around him. 

This surprising event greatly alarmed 
the people of the adjacent country, who 
were divided in their opinions concerning 
a child, whose birth was attended with so 
many extraordinary circumstances. In- 
deed, these incidents were worthy of gene- 
ral admiration ; that he who was to be the 
forerunner of the mighty Saviour of Israel 
should not make his entrance into life in 
an obscure and common manner, but with 
particular tokens of the favour of Heaven, 
in order to attract the observation of his 
countrymen, and excite their attention to 
that ministry which he was called to by 
the blessed God, even the preparation of 
the people for the reception of the Messiah, 
who was shortty to appear in the flesh. 

It is observable, that the Baptist, from 
his infancy, displayed great qualities, both 
of mind and body : for such was his 
strength of constitution, through the bless- 
ing of the God of nature, that he lived 
till near the thirtieth year of his age, when 
his public ministry began, in the moun- 
tainous and desert country of Judea, bereft 
of almost all the comforts of life. But 
at length the prophecy of the good old 
Zacharias, relating to his future elevation, 
was literally fulfilled : Thou, child, shah 
be called the Prophet of the Highest : for thou 
shalt go before the face of the Lord, to pre- 
pare his ways ; to give knowledge of salvation 
unto his people, by the remission of their sins, 
through the tender mercy of our God ; whereby 
the day-spring from on high hath visited us, to 
give light to them that sit in darkness, and in 
the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the 
way of peace. 

As Joseph had betrothed Mary, accord- 



ing to the method of the Jewish espousals, 
before they came to cohabit together as 
man and wife, she was found to be with 
child : at which he was so much con- 
founded, that he resolved to put her away. 
Yet he purposed doing it privately, pro- 
bably to prevent that exemplary ptmishmenl 
which the law inflicted on those who had 
violated the faith of their espousals be- 
fore the marriage was completed. Deut. 
xxii. 23, 24. or the infamy of a public di- 
vorce. 

While he was ruminating on this in- 
teresting event, he was overtaken with a 
pleasing slumber, and received a commu- 
nication from above, which fully revealed 
the cause and manner of Mary's preg- 
nancy, dispelled his doubts, and encou- 
raged him to take home his falsely sus- 
pected spouse : Joseph, thou son of David, 
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; 
for that which is conceived in her is of the 
Holy Ghost. 

The pious Joseph complied with the 
voice of Heaven most cheerfully : for no 
sooner did the morning dawn appear, than 
he rose from his couch, and obeyed the 
commands of the Most High, by relating 
to his espoused wife his being assured of 
her innocence, and immediately restored 
her to former favour. 

While he related to her the manner of 
this extraordinary revelation by a mes- 
senger from heaven, he discovered in her 
a remarkable chastity of heart, entirely 
conformable to so mysterious an operation, 
and knew her not till she had brought forth 
the great Redeemer of IsraeL 

Thus was fulfilled that which was fore- 
told by the prophets, and particularly 
the prediction of Isaiah, which imported 
that a virgin should bring forth a son. — 
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a 
so?i, and shall call his name Emmanuel, 

which, 



AND SAVIOUR 



JESUS CHRIST. 



which, being interpreted is, God with us, 
Isa. vii. 14. Matt. 1, 23* 

C H A P. II. 

General Decree for Taxation published. — 
Birth of Christ. — Declaration of the same 
to the Shepherds. — Circumcision and Pre- 
sentation of Christ in the Temple. — The 
Wise Men of the East worship the holy 
Child. — Flight of Joseph into Egypt. — 
Massacre of Infants at Bethlehem. — Death 
of Herod, — And return of Joseph out of 
Egypt. 

AUGUSTUS CiESAR, the Roman 
emperor, having at this time issued 
an edict for a general taxation, on all the 
nations, cities, and towns, subject to the 
empire, king Herod, in consequence of 
that decree, commanded all under his 
government to muster in the city of his 
people, or place of his descent, that an 
estimate might be taken of their persons 
and effects. Pursuant to this order, Joseph 
and Mary, as descendants from the line of 
David, departed from Nazareth, where 
they then resided, and came to Bethlehem, 
a city of Judea, the place of the nativity 
of David and his ancestors. 

So numerous were the people that re- 
paired to this place on account of the 



* We see here in Joseph an excellent pattern of gentle- 
ness and prudence. In an affair which appeared dubious, 
he chose, as we should always do, rather to err on the 
favourable, than on the severe extreme. He was careful 
to avoid any precipitate steps, and, in the moments of de- 
liberation, God interposed to guide and determine his 
resolves. 

With what wonder and pleasure did he receive these glad 
tidings ! With what pleasure should we also receive them ! 
For we too are informed of Jesus, who came to save his 
people from their sins. An important and glorious salva- 
tion indeed ! Blessed Jesus ! answer thy character, in de- 
livering us not only from sin's condemning, but also from its 
reigning power. 



general decree, that every dwelling was 
occupied ; and Joseph and Mary, though 
they could not depart thence till after the 
taxation, were forced to take up their re- 
sidence in a stable, the spot in which it 
pleased the Divine wisdom should be born 
the Lord of life and glory, who, as a per- 
fect example of humility to all his follow- 
ers, was to make his entrance into, and his 
exit out of, this lower world, in a very 
mean and humble manner. 

With what humble amazement should 
we contemplate this first appearance of 
our incarnate Redeemer ! Surely all the 
angels of heaven might justly have admir- 
ed his condescension in assuming such a 
nature as ours, and wearing a mortal 
frame, though it had been attended with 
all the ornaments and splendours which 
earth could have given it. Though, at 
his entrance into our lower world, he had 
been born of an imperial family, placed 
under a canopy of velvet and gold, or laid 
to repose on pillows of down, all this had 
been deep abasement in the eyes of those 
who had beheld the glories of his celestial 
throne, and the honours paid him by che- 
rubims and seraphims. But, behold, the 
Son of God, and the Heir of all things, is 
not merely in the abodes of men, but in 
a place destined for beasts, and, while 
wrapped in swaddling clothes, is laid in a 
manger. 

Yet, 0 blessed Jesus, how much more 
venerable was that stable and manger, when 
graced with thy sacred presence, than the 
most magnificent palace, or most shining- 
throne, of earthly princes ! How ill doth it 
become thy disciples to seek great things 
for themselves in this life, or to be proud 
of its pomp and grandeur ! Give us, 0 
God, the simplicity of children, and make 
us willing to be conformed to the birth of thy 
Son, as well as to his death. 

The 



12 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



The manner and place of our Lord's 
birth certainly demand our highest admi- 
ration and wonder, as a striking display 
of wisdom, both in the direction and ac- 
complishment of the will of his heavenly 
Father. Considered in his divine nature, 
heaven is the habitation of his seat, and 
the earth is his footstool : considered in his 
human nature, he is humbled beneath all, 
being confined within the narrow limits of 
a manger ! Though, as the Son of God, he 
is the brightness of his Father's glory, the 
express image of his person, and his throne is 
for ever and ever! as the Son of man, O 
wondrous condescension ! he is wrapped 
in the meanest swaddling-clothes ; and, as 
man, he takes up his habitation with the 
beasts of the field. In fine, let us adore his 
grace and love in vailing those glories for 
a time, which he enjoyed at the right 
hand of his Father, assuming our nature, 
and that in its humblest state, in order to 
raise us to that degree of glory and hap- 
piness, which, by our apostasy from God, 
we had justly forfeited ; exulting with the 
prophet, Sing, O heavens ! and be joyful, O, 
earth! and break forth into singing, O moun- 
tains ! for the Lord hath comforted his people. 

But the humble manner in which the 
blessed Jesus made his appearance in the 
world, did not long eclipse the glory of 
his descent; a heavenly messenger being- 
despatched from above, to apprise mankind 
of their Saviour's incarnation. It pleased 
the wise disposer of all things, by his holy 
angel, first to make known to some honest 
shepherds, who were watching their flocks 
by night in the neighbouring fields, the 
birth of the long-promised, long expected 
Messiah. The radiance which shone 
around them terrified the astonished pea- 
sants ; but, to dissipate their fears, and 
confirm their joys, the divine messenger 
interposed, and thus addressed them : 



Fear not ;for, behold, I bring you good tidings 
of great joy, winch shall be to all people. For 
unto you is born this day, in the city of David, 
a Saviour, which is Chiist the Lord. And this 
shall be a sign unto you ; Ye shall find the babe 
wrapped in swaddling-clothes, lying in a man- 
ger, Luke ii. 10, &c. 

The glorious news was no sooner pro- 
claimed, than a number of the celestial 
choir were heard to resound the praises of 
the Almighty, for this transcendent display 
of his goodness to sinful men : And sucl- 
denly there was with the angel a multitude of 
the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace, good-will towards men. Transported 
with the happy tidings of the birth of the 
Redeemer of Israel, the angel no sooner 
departed, than the shepherds hastened to 
Bethlehem in quest of the babe, whom, 
according to the information of the sacred 
missionary, they found wrapped in swad- 
dling-clothes, and lying in a manger 
This event, so exactly conformable to the 
angel's prediction, equally delighted and 
amazed them ; nor could they conceal the 
purport of his mission, but published abroad 
all they had seen and heard. 

Having viewed, with praise and wonder, 
their long-expected Saviour, and offered 
their grateful praises to God for the mani- 
festation of his goodness to mankind, they 
departed, with hearts filled with love and 
gratitude, still glorifying the Almighty Pa- 
rent of universal nature. 

After the expiration of eight days from 
the birth of the holy infant, he was cir- 
cumcised, according to the Mosaic insti- 
tution ; and thus, by a few drops, gave 
earnest of the abundance of blood which 
he was to shed for the purification of 
mankind. The blessed Redeemer passed 
through the ceremony, not that he stood 
in any necessity of conforming to laws of 

any 



AND SAVIOUR 



JESUS CHRIST. 



13 



any kind, being the supreme Lawgiver, 
with respect to his exalted nature ; but as 
considered in his humble state, he was born 
of a woman, made under the laze, and came, 
according to his own declaration, to fulfil 
all righteousness, it was requisite he should 
conform to that custom which character- 
ized the Jewish nation, and was one of 
the principal injunctions of the Mosaic 
law, under which he was born ; in order 
to fulfil all that is spoken of him in the 
scriptures. 

Besides, as all the promises made to 
Abraham were to be fulfilled in the Mes- 
siah, it was necessary he should receive 
the seal of circumcision, in order to prove 
his descent from the patriarch, concern- 
ing whom it was foretold, In thy seed shall 
all the families of the earth he blessed. As a 
further reason for our Lord's compliance 
with this Jewish institution, we may urge 
the propriety of his finishing the former 
dispensation, by an exact adherence to 
its rules, as he was about to establish 
another, and much better, which could 
not be effected more fully, than by con- 
forming to that sacrament, which was" of 
divine injunction, and indispensably requi- 
site to admission into the former. 

As the same institution also required 
that every first-born son, without an} 7 re- 
gard to circumstance or family, should be 
presented to the Lord, in the temple, by 
delivering him into the hands of the priest, 
and paying five shekels, together with an 
offering, which, from the poorer sort, con- 
sisted of a pair of turtle-doves, or two 
young pigeons ; (a ceremony in comme- 
moration of the divine mercy in sparing 
the first-born of Israel, when those of 
Egypt, both man and beast, were destroy- 
ed ;) his parents, having tarried at Beth- 
lehem till the days of Mary's purification 
were accomplished, brought the child 



Jesus to Jerusalem, and there presented 
him in the temple to the Lord, in the man- 
ner thus described, with the offering allowed 
to the poorer sort of people ; — a repeated 
instance of the exact obedience of the 
immaculate Jesus to the ceremonial law, 
as well as the poverty of his parents, though 
descended from a royal house. 

During the presentation of the holy 
infant, there entered the temple a pious 
and venerable old man, named Simeon, 
who, with all the devout, had waited day 
and night for the consolation of Israel, and 
to whom it had been revealed by the Spirit 
of truth, that he should not depart this 
mortal life, till he had seen the Lord of life 
and salvation. 

Accordingly, it was signified to him by 
the Holy Ghost, at whose instance he 
came at the precise time into the temple, 
that the child there presented was the long- 
expected Messiah, even the Redeemer of 
Israel. In an ecstasy of joy he embraced 
the heavenly infant in his arms, and ex- 
claimed, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant 
depart in peace, according to thy word ; for 
mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou 
hast prepared before the face of all people ; a 
light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of 
thy people Israel, Luke ii. 29 — 32. 

The exultation of Simeon astonished the 
parents of our Lord ; not as unworthy the 
divine subject of it, to which are due 
strains superior either to men or angels ; 
but as evincing the old man's certain 
knowledge that the child was the pro- 
mised Messiah, though he was an absolute 
stranger. But their surprise was soon re- 
moved by Simeon's saving unto Mary his 
mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall 
and rising again of many in Israel: or, in 
other words, This is the stumbling-block 
and rock of offence, which it was long- 
foretold bv God should be laid in Zion, 

D and 



14 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



and which should occasion the fall of many 
in Israel : for through the humble manner 
of his birth, and his abject state upon earth, 
he became despised and rejected of men; 
yet he is set for the rising again of many, 
who shall rely on his merits, and submit to 
his government. 

Commentators are divided in their opi- 
nions concerning this old Simeon. Some 
think he was of the order of priests, and 
that he uttered the words cited above, 
while he was presenting the child to the 
Lord, in the office of his function. But as 
the Evangelist, who recites in a particular 
manner the presentation of our blessed 
Lord, is silent on that head, it appears lit- 
tle more than conjecture. 

Others affirm he was Simon the Just, a 
disciple of the famous Hillel, the master of 
Gamaliel, under whom the apostle Paul 
was educated ; and that while he was 
attempting to explain to the people that 
passage in the prophecy of Isaiah, Behold, 
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, it was 
revealed to him, that he should see with 
mortal eyes the promised Messiah ; and 
that on his beholding the child and his 
mother in the temple, he broke out into 
that, well-known doxology. But this could 
not be, for Simon the Just lived till forty- 
one years after the death of Christ ; and 
it has been affirmed by Eusebius, that 
he was not above seventy when he died. 
Besides, it is remarkable, that the Al- 
mighty, at that time, was pleased to reveal 
his will with respect to the Messiah, not 
to the great, the wise, and the learned, 
but to the poor and illiterate, such as 
Joseph a carpenter, Zacharias an ordinary 
priest, and a company of shepherds : 
therefore, as the point is not settled, we 
presume to offer it as our opinion, that 
this old man, to whom God was pleased 
to make so extraordinary a revelation con- 



cerning the Saviour of the world, was a 
plain man, rather eminent for the piety of 
his heart than the knowledge of his head, 
and who possessed more grace and devo- 
tion than learning and earthly pomp. 

A certain good prophetess, called Anna, 
who had a long time waited for the re- 
demption of Israel, entering the temple 
at the instant in which Simeon exulted in 
the birth of the heavenly Infant, and find- 
ing that he was the promised Messiah, 
likewise joined with him in praising God, 
and went forth and declared the glad 
tidings of salvation to all the faithful in 
these parts. 

Having, in every respect, complied with 
the ceremonies and rites contained in the 
law of Moses, Joseph and Mary, with the 
child Jesus, entered into Galilee, to their own 
city Nazareth, They did not, however, 
long abide there, for having adjusted their 
affairs, they returned again to Bethlehem, 
the place of our Lord's nativity. 

This step seems to have been pursued 
in consequence of their opinion, that it 
was necessary, in order to his being ac- 
knowledged the Messiah sent by God, 
that he should reside some time in the 
place of his birth. Whatever was their 
motive for removal, it is evident, from 
scripture, that while they were in Beth- 
lehem, with their Son, certain Eastern 
philosophers, called Magi, or Wise Men, 
came, in consequence of the appearance 
they had seen, to Jerusalem, and inquired 
for the King of the Jews, declaring they 
had seen his star in their own quarter, 
and were come to pay him the adorations 
due to his dignity. 

Various conjectures have been formed 
by the learned concerning this star, which 
is snid to have appeared in the east: some 
think it was the Spirit of God, others an 
angel, some a comet, others a luminous 

appearance, 



AND SAVIOUR 

appearance, &c. A modern writer thinks 
it was the glory that surrounded the angels, 
who had appeared before the shepherds of 
Bethlehem on the night of our blessed 
Lord's nativity. 

But, notwithstanding these uncertain 
conjectures, the star answered the end de- 
signed, and directed the Magi to the spot 
where resided the Lord of life and glory. 
Some men, too wise to admit of the evi- 
dences from revelation, have sceptically 
inquired, how these eastern Magi could 
arrive at any knowledge that the Jews 
expected the Messiah? and that, therefore, 
on the appearance of this new star in the 
firmament, how they should apprehend it 
pointed out the birth of the great Redeem- 
er of Israel ? The learned assertors of the 
Christian cause, in answer to these queries, 
observe, that an opinion of the approach 
of the Messiah's kingdom had long pre- 
vailed all over the East ; nay, this is de- 
clared in profane history, by Suetonius, 
Tacitus, and others. 

The reason of this prevailing opinion is 
very obvious. The Jews conceived mighty 
expectations of the Messiah, from the 
many prophecies concerning him recorded 
in their own language ; and the Arabians, 
from the prophecies to the same import 
made to Abraham ; it being certain that 
those people retained traditional know- 
ledge of this promise, from the words of 
Balaam, who was an Arabian prophet, 
There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a 
sceptre shall arise out of Israel, $c. which 
every impartial reader must acknowledge 
refers to the appearance of the Messiah 
only, but not to any other incident what- 
ever. 

The other eastern nations derived their 
expectations of the Messiah from their 
commercial connections with the Jews 
and Arabians, but more especially from 



JESUS CHRIST. 15 

the Jews, who being scattered over the 
whole country of the East, spread their re- 
ligion wherever they went ; which occasion- 
ed several Roman historians to take notice 
of .the prevalence of that opinion. 

Nay, the expectation of the Messiah 
being born in Judea, was strongly impress- 
ed on the minds of the followers of Zo- 
roaster, who reformed the religion of the 
Persians, being a servant to the prophet 
Daniel, and particularly favoured with 
revelations concerning the appearance of 
the Messiah. 

From these considerations, it evidently 
appears that this opinion prevailed through- 
out the East, and that the Magi might, 
with great reason, on the appearance of 
the star, repair to Jerusalem, in quest of 
the promised Saviour of Israel. 

But to leave this subject, as not imme- 
diately appertaining to our purpose. — The 
whole city of Jerusalem was alarmed at 
the unexpected arrival of the Eastern 
Magi ; an event which much perplexed 
the tyrant Herod, whose ambitious mind 
maintained the utmost aversion to the very 
thought of a rival or competitor, and con- 
sequently could not brook a report that 
favoured the news of the birth of the King 
of the Jews. 

Disguising however, his sentiments, he 
received the Magi with seeming respect, 
attended to the design of their errand with 
affected complacency, and, to gratify their 
curiosity, summoned a general council, 
and demanded of them where Christ should 
be bom ? The council kept him not long 
in suspense; for, well remembering that 
the prophets had particularly foretold the 
place of his birth, they replied to the de- 
mand of their monarch, " In Bethlehem 
of Judea;" and, to confirm their answer, 
cited prophetic authority '• And thou, Beth- 
lehem, in the land of Juda, art not the h 

among 



16 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



among the princes of Juda : for out of thee 
shall come a Governor, that shall rule my 
people Israel, Matt. ii. 6. — The tyrant king, 
in consequence of the reply from the su- 
preme council of the nation, directed the 
Magi to Bethlehem, as the place, accord- 
ing to ancient prophecy, designed for the 
honour of Christ's nativity, earnestly en- 
treating them at the same time, imme- 
diately on their finding out the child, 
to send him word, that he might repair 
thither, and pay his adoration to him 
also. 

But this was mere pretence, and vile 
hypocrisy ; for, so far was Flerod from 
entertaining any religious regard for the 
infant Jesus, that he vowed in his heart to 
destroy him as soon as he should be found, 
looking on him as designed for a temporal 
prince, who would expel him, or his de- 
scendants, from the throne of Judea, 
instead of a prince whose kingdom was 
wholly spiritual, and whose throne was 
not to be established upon earth, but in 
the heavenly Jerusalem. 

Although we have many stronger proofs 
of the divinity of our Saviour's mission 
than his miraculous preservation from the 
designs of the ambitious Herod, yet this 
was very remarkable. The tyrant, in this 
case, acted with the utmost subtlety : he 
declined accompanying the wise men in 
person ; nor did he even send attendants 
with them, who, under the guise of ho- 
nouring them, might have secretly inform- 
ed him of the abode of the Messiah. In 
short, he acted with such apparent indiffe- 
rence, as if he had no peculiar reason for 
despatching them on the occasion. 

However, the Magi, having obtained 
the intelligence they sought in Jerusalem, 
set forward under the guidance of the 
same star that conducted them from their 
own country, but had left them on their 



arrival in Judea : which was the cause of 
their directing their course to the capital, 
in order to seek that information, which, 
by the desertion of the star, became re- 
quisite. Thus it appears the design of the 
Almighty, in directing the Eastern Magi 
to the capital of Judea, was, that the 
whole nation might be made acquainted 
with the cause of their journey. 

Accordingly, they had no sooner pro- 
ceeded from Jerusalem, on their way to 
Bethlehem, than their kind conductor 
again appeared, went before them to the 
very city, and fixed on the habitation of 
the heavenly infant. Guided by this ce- 
lestial conductor, they entered the house, 
and, prostrating themselves at the sacred 
feet of their spiritual King, presented 
him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and 
myrrh. Having thus accomplished the 
design of the expedition, they proposed, 
according to promise, returning to Jerusa- 
lem ; but being diverted from that inten- 
tion by a dream, in which they were warn- 
ed by God of Herod's design, they pursued 
another course towards their own country, 
and by those means defeated his malicious 
purpose. 

But it is natural and reasonable to sup- 
pose, that the end of the divine wisdom, in 
directing these Eastern Magi to the king- 
dom of Judea, to worship the child Jesus, 
was not merely to gratify the curiosity of 
the wise men, because the event promoted 
many other very important designs, some 
of which we shall mention. 

It proved, to succeeding ages, the great 
expectation the Gentiles formed of the 
appearance of the Messiah, and conse- 
quently established the truth of those pro- 
phecies which related to that event, as 
well as excited in the minds of men the 
most sanguine hopes and longing de- 
sires. 

As 



AND SAVIOUR, 

As these Magi, doubtless, reported, on 
their return to their own countrymen, the 
particulars they had heard and seen in the 
kingdom of Judea, relative to the Messiah, 
such report must certainly have promoted 
the belief of the gospel in those parts, 
when afterwards preached there by the 
apostles. The expedition of the wise men 
was the cause of the answer of the San- 
hedrim, in which it was unanimously de- 
clared to be the opinion of all the Jewish 
Rabbies then living, that, according to 
ancient prophecies, Bethlehem was the 
place appointed by the Almighty to give 
birth to the promised Messiah. 

It also contributed to another valuable 
purpose, in that the offerings of the wise 
men procured a subsistence for the holy 
family in Egypt, whither they w r ere soon 
after warned to fly, in order to escape the 
vengeance of the enraged kins:: for no 
sooner had the wise men departed from 
Bethlehem, than Joseph was warned, by 
a heavenly messenger, of the barbarous 
purpose of Herod, and commanded to flee 
into Egypt, with the young child and his 
mother. 

Joseph, in obedience to the Almighty's 
command, rose that very night, and pre- 
pared to go into Egypt, and was there 
until the death of Herod; that it might he 
fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by 
the prophet, Out of Egypt have I called my 
Son. This prophecy, which is quoted from 
Hosea, seems originally to refer to the Is- 
raelites, though the Evangelist's reference 
will be amply justified, by considering that 
the Egyptian captivity alludes to the sub- 
jection of the Israelites to great hardships, 
and their deliverance from the same by an 
almighty hand. 

Now, as the departure of the holy fa- 
mily into Egypt was in obedience to the 
divine command, in order to protect the 



JESUS CHRIST. 17 

holy Jesus from the incensed Herod, the 
application of the prophet, Out of Egypt 
have I called my Son, appears very just, as 
well as elegant. The king of Judea long 
waited, with the most earnest expectation, 
the return of the wise men, anxious to glut 
his full resentment on the innocent Jesus ; 
till, from their long delay, he began to sus- 
pect a delusion, and that his designs were 
frustrated by some extraordinary interpo- 
sition of Providence. 

At length, irritated by disappointment, 
he resolved to accomplish by cruelty a re- 
solution he could not effect by art ; and 
accordingly issued orders to a large party 
of soldiers to go throughout Bethlehem, 
and the neighbouring villages, and massa- 
cre all the children they could find therein, 
from two years old and under ; thinking 
that the infant Jesus, whom as a prince 
he both envied and dreaded, would fall 
in the general slaughter. 

But the heavenly missionary was shel- 
tered from above ; nor was the relentless 
king permitted to impede the design of an 
Almighty Creator. 

However, the cities through which the 
soldiers carried the destructive sword ex- 
hibited such scenes of horror and distress, 
as could not fail to pierce every soul not 
entirely lost to humanity ; no sound was 
heard but the affecting cries of parents, 
the groans of expiring babes, and a general 
imprecation of vengeance on the merciless 
tyrant. But he did not long survive his 
cruel decree, being swept from his throne 
b}^ a nauseous disease, to answer for his 
conduct at the bar of a tremendous Judge. 

No description can paint the horror of 
such a scene of relentless cruelty in a more 
glaring light, than the verse quoted by the 
Evangelist Matthew from the prophet Je- 
remiah, Then was fulfilled that which wasspo- 
ken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama 

E was 



IS 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



was there a voice heard, lamentation, and 
weeping, and great mourning : Rachel weeping 
for her children, and would not be comforted, 
because they were not. — This prophecy must 
not be understood literally, but descrip- 
tively, or as a figure used to display the 
horror of the scene, as there applied by the 
Evangelist, in which acceptation it has a 
peculiar beauty ; representing Rachel, the 
beloved wife of Jacob, buried many years 
ao'o in the fields of Bethlehem, awakened 
by the cries of slaughtered infants, burst- 
ing even the chains of death, and lament- 
ing the hapless fate of the murdered inno- 
cents which surrounded her. 

The tyrant Herod being thus cut off 
from the face of the earth, Joseph was 
warned by an heavenly messenger to re- 
turn to the land of Israel. The good old 
man obeyed the Almighty's command, 
and appears to have had a great desire of 
residing in Judea, and very probably in 
Bethlehem : but hearing that Herod was 
succeeded in his throne by his son Arche- 
laus, and fearing that he might pursue the 
barbarous design of his father, he directed 
his course another way ; but being warned 
again by a heavenly mission, he retired 
into Galilee, then under the government 
of a mild and benevolent prince, called 
Antipas, and took up his habitation at 
Nazareth, where the particular circum- 
stances which attended the birth of the 
blessed Jesus were not generally known. 
The evangelist affirms, that Joseph, with 
the infant and his mother, resided in Na- 
zareth, where the holy Jesus spent his 
youth ; that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a 
Nazare?ie. 

The advocates for infidelity, whose no- 
tice the smallest apparent inaccuracy in 
the sacred scriptures has not escaped, have 
not failed to observe, that the Evangelist 



refers to what he cannot justify from any 
of the prophetical writings, in which there 
are no such words to be found, as, He shall 
be called a Nazarene. But be it known, that 
the Evangelist may, with justice, be vin- 
dicated from impropriety, by reminding 
these sceptics, that though the very words 
are not to be found, the allusion is just, 
and consequently the application. This 
expression refers to the general contempt 
and ridicule in which the Israelites held 
the Galileans, and especially the Nazarenes, 
who were even despised by the Galileans 
themselves, insomuch that the word Na- 
zarene became a term of reproach. 

Now, as the prophets in general fore- 
told the disgrace and infamy through 
which the blessed Jesus should pass, they 
consequently foretold he should be called 
a Nazarene, or be exposed to every token 
of contempt and ridicule, of which this 
appellation, at that time, was a remarkable 
instance. 

It is evident, that our Lord's residing at 
Nazareth tended in a remarkable manner, 
to the fulfilment of those prophecies, be- 
cause, in the course of his public ministry, 
he was frequently reproached with the 
same ; and his countrymen often urged it 
as a reason for their disregard of his doc- 
trine. But as the stubbornness of unbelief 
will never admit of conviction, we have 
therefore added these remarks, to confirm 
the faith of the Christian, rather than con- 
vince the obstinate Infidel. 

CHAP. III. 

State of our Lord's Childhood, and private 
Life. — IBs Arguments with the Jewish 
Doctors. — Mission, Character, and Doc- 
trine, of the Baptist. — Baptism of Christ, 
and visible Descent of the Spirit on that 
Solemnity. 

THE 



AND SAVIOUR, 

THE precise circumstances of our 
Lord's childhood and life, previous 
to his public ministry, cannot be ascertain- 
ed from the writings of any of the Evan- 
gelists, which can alone be relied on as 
authentic. All we can gather from those 
inspired men is, that the faculties of his 
mind were enlarged in proportion to the 
growth of his body, insomuch that he 
arrived at the very perfection of heavenly 
wisdom. 

As his parents were mean and poor, he 
had not the advantage of a finished edu- 
cation ; and he seems to have received no 
other instruction than what his parents 
gave him, in conformity to the Jewish 
laws. But supernatural abilities amply 
compensated for the deficiency of natural 
acquirements ; and he gave instances, in 
his earliest years, of amazing penetration 
and consummate wisdom. 

According to the Mosaic institution, his 
parents annually went up to Jerusalem ; 
and when he arrived at the age of twelve 
years, carried him with them to that city, 
in order that he might earlv imbibe the 
precepts of religion and virtue. In this 
place the holy Jesus tarried, without the 
knowledge, and consequently the con- 
sent, of his parents, who departed with the 
rest that were going towards Galilee ; and 
thinking that he was gone forward with 
some of their relations or acquaintance, 
the}- continued their journey, not doubting 
but they should overtake him on the road, 
or meet with him at the place where they 
had appointed to lodge. But on their 
arrival, not finding the child in the village, 
nor amongst their relations, they returned 
to Jerusalem, much troubled ; and, after a 
most anxious search of three days, found 
him in the temple sitting among the 
learned doctors, who were amazed at the 
wisdom of his questions, and the perti- 



JESUS CHRIST. 19 

nence of his replies ; which were greatly 
superior to the utmost they could expect 
from one of his tender years and mean 
education. 

These doctors, or expounders of the law, 
among the Jews, always taught the people 
publicly on the three great festivals ; and 
it was on one of these public occasions 
that the blessed Jesus gave such manifest 
proofs of his wisdom and penetration, as 
astonished all the beholders, many of 
whom thought he must be something more 
than human. — As, according to his own 
declaration, he was employed in his Fa- 
ther's business, it is natural to think, in 
the course of his disputes, he modestly 
corrected some of the errors which the 
Jewish doctors then taught, and which 
were repugnant to the principles of that 
religion he came to promote and establish. 
The wonder of his parents at finding him 
in such sublime employment, was beyond 
expression ; though his pious mother, not- 
withstanding the pleasure which the dis- 
cover} 7 afforded her, could not help shew- 
ing the concern which his absence, with- 
out their knowledge, had occasioned them, 
by addressing him thus, Son, why hast 
thou thus dealt ziith us ? behold, thy father 
and I have sought thee sorrowing. To this 
question he replied, " That their surprise 
at his absenting himself without their 
knowledge was groundless and absurd ; 
as they might have been assured, from 
his extraordinary birth, and the wonder- 
ful circumstances attending it, that his 
Father was no less than the Almighty 
One of Israel ; that he assumed human 
nature to promote his glorious designs ; 
and, therefore, as his errand was of such 
moment, they must not imagine he could 
always reside with them." How is it that 
ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be 
about my Father's business ? 

Though 



20 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Though his parents did not clearly dis- 
cern the force of this excellent remon- 
strance, his pious mother committed his 
words to memory ; and, together with 
Joseph her husband, joyfully returned 
with him to their poor dwelling at Naza- 
reth, where he lived with them in dutiful 
subjection ; and thereby afforded a noble 
example for the imitation of all children, 
who certainly are bound to yield obe- 
dience to their parents ; since the Son of 
God himself, when on earth, has set them 
the pattern, by practising every branch of 
filial duty to his earthly parents. 

The blessed Jesus continued in this 
lowly state for some time, during which 
he greatly advanced both in knowledge and 
stature; and, by his extraordinary qualities, 
attracted the regard and admiration of all 
who either saw or heard him. 

Being happily free from those inordinate 
disquieting desires, which disturb and dis- 
tract mortals, he was always in temper 
calm and sedate, which, added to a plea- 
sant countenance, combined to prove the 
strength of his faculties, and the goodness 
of his disposition. He was also an excel- 
lent orator, being endowed with a most 
nervous and persuasive elocution, inso- 
much that his hearers, frequently aston- 
ished at the substance and manner of his 
address, would suddenly cry out, Never 
man spake like this man! Though, consi- 
dered in his divine nature, he was so far 
superior to human nature, during the time 
in which he lived thus humbly with his pa- 
rents, yet, it is supposed, he condescended 
to work with his father at his trade of a 
carpenter, and thereby left us a shining 
example of industry. 

Thus obscurely did the blessed Jesus 
live, till the time of his public ministry ; 
nor did he shew any miracles, or perform 
any actions, to distinguish him from the 



rest of mankind : his divine nature, and 
the annexed properties, during the time 
of his private life, being concealed undei 
the vail of his human nature. 

As this is the whole account, collected 
from sacred history, concerning the child- 
hood and private life of the blessed Jesus, 
the Saviour of mankind, we must content 
ourselves therewith, not seeking to indulge 
a curiosity, which such silence seems to 
forbid, as sinful — as impertinent. 

Many people, of more speculation than 
piety, may be induced to inquire the cause 
which prevented the Evangelists giving us 
an exact detail of the transactions of our 
blessed Saviour's life, from the twelfth year 
of his age till the time of his public mi- 
nistry. To such we answer, that the design 
of the inspired writers being to instruct 
rather than amuse, they consulted our 
interest more than our humour and ca- 
price ; and that, therefore, the wisdom of 
God, by whose inspiration they wrote, de- 
mands our admiration, in that they passed 
over less important parts of our Saviour's 
life, which would have swelled their Gos- 
pels to an enormous bulk, fit only for the 
perusal of the studious, and those persons 
who had much vacant time ; whereas the 
four Gospels, as they are written, make 
only a small volume, which is convenient 
for carriage, for reading, for the memory 
to retain, as well as adapted, by the plain- 
ness of its style, to the meanest capacities ; 
notwithstanding which, they contain all 
the important transactions of our Saviour's 
life, such as those which relate to his me- 
diatorial office, the design of his incarna- 
tion, which was to teach us those things 
that belong to our eternal peace and hap- 
piness ; to instruct us in his heavenly 
doctrines, as our prophet ; to offer himself 
a sacrifice upon the cross, as our priest ; 
and to burst the chains of death, and 

triumphantly 



S7 JIH TIE •WK3LB3EmE3 , 3ESS. 



riSHER. SON fc C? LONDON, IBS* 



AND SAVIOUR, 

triumphantly ascended into heaven, as 
King or head of his church. 

The omissions therefore can be of no 
real consequence, since these are written, 
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might 
have life through his name. 

During the obscure state of our blessed 
Redeemer at Nazareth, the emperor Au- 
gustus died in Campania, after a long 
reign of above forty years, to the general 
regret of the whole Roman empire. He 
was succeeded by Tiberius his step-son, a 
prince of a very different temper of mind 
from his predecessor. This emperor, in the 
second year of his reign, recalled Rufus 
from the government of Judea, and sent 
Valerius Gracchus to succeed him. After 
reigning eleven years, Gracchus was re- 
called, and succeeded by Pontius Pilate, a 
person resembling, in disposition, his mas- 
ter Tiberius, who was malicious, cruel, and 
covetous. 

Soon after Pontius Pilate was appointed 
to the government of Judea, John the Bap- 
tist began to open his commission for pre- 
paring our Saviour's way before him, ac- 
cording as was appointed, by preaching the 
baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. 
Sacred history has not informed us of the 
manner in which the Baptist spent the 
former part of his life ; but according to 
ancient tradition, Elizabeth, hearing of He- 
rod's barbarous massacre of the infants of 
Bethlehem, fled into the wilderness, to se- 
cure the infant John from the relentless cru- 
elty of that inhuman monster, and there 
nurtured him with all the tenderness of an 
affectionate mother. John the Baptist was 
about eighteen months old when his mo- 
ther fled with him into the wilderness ; 
within forty clays after which she died. 

His aged father Zacharias, when he 
afterwards officiated in the temple, was 



JESUS CHRIST. 21 

slain by the command of Herod, for re- 
fusing to discover the place of his son's 
abode. The intended harbinger of the 
blessed Jesus, being thus deprived of his 
earthly parents, the Father of the father- 
less took compassion on him, and sent an 
angel to defend and support him, till he 
had attained to a sufficient age and strength 
to provide for himself. 

It appears, from the accounts of the 
evangelists, that he dwelt in the desert till 
the time of his public ministry, resembling 
the ancient prophet Elijah, in the mean- 
ness of his clothing, and plainness of his 
diet. His dress was composed of camels' 
hair, his food the spontaneous productions 
of the wilderness, such as locusts and wild 
honey, and his drink the pure water of 
some crystal spring. His course of life 
was, indeed, admirably adapted to the 
doctrine of repentance which he preached, 
as well as to engage the attention of his 
hearers ; so that it appears highly reason- 
able that those people who waited the com- 
ing of the Messiah with earnest expectation, 
should flock to him, anxious to hear what 
he had to deliver concerning him. 

He proved very successful in his minis- 
ter, as he enforced the doctrine of repent- 
ance, because the kingdom of heaven was 
at hand : persons of all degrees and pro- 
fessions flocked to him, confessed their sins, 
were baptized in Jordan, and submitted to 
whatever the prophet prescribed as neces- 
sary to obtain an inheritance in that king- 
dom, the approach of which he came to 
declare. Amongst his converts were many 
of the Pharisaical tribe, some of whom 
confessed their sins, and were likewise 
baptized in Jordan. 

The conversion of the Pharisees surpris- 
ed the Baptist, knowing that they main- 
tained a high opinion of their own sanctity, 
for which reason it was very astonishing 

F that 



22 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



that they should express any desire of ob- 
taining a remission of their sins. In short, 
he was much surprised to find the whole 
nation so affected by his threatenings, es- 
pecially as he knew they expected salva- 
tion on account of their beins; of the seed 
of Abraham, a conceit which they greatly 
cherished, and which they seem to have 
derived from a misrepresentation of the 
following passage : Thus saith the Lord, 
who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the 
ordinance of the moon, and the stars, for a 
light by night ; who divideth the sea, when the 
waves thereof roar ; the Lord of Jiosts is his 
name : If those ordinances depart from before 
me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel 
also shall cease from being a nation before me 
forever. Thus saith the Lord, If the heaven 
above can be measured, and the foundation of 
the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast 
off the seed of Israel, for all that they have 
done, saith the Lord. 

But the Baptist, to curb their arrogance, 
called them the offspring of vipers, instead 
of the children of Abraham ; perhaps the 
Pharisees and Sadducees applied to John 
for baptism, thinking by that means to 
avoid the danger they might incur, from 
being the avowed enemies of the Messiah, 
whom they expected to come in all the 
pomp of royalty, and to maintain his su- 
periority by force of arms. 

The Baptist, who was no stranger to 
those hypocritical sects, well knowing that 
their application to him arose from sinister 
views, severely reprimanded them in ge- 
neral ; 0 generation of vipers, who hath 
warned you to flee from the wrath to come ? 
Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. — 
O deceivers, hypocrites, whence have you 
obtained knowledge of the approaching 
event I am destined, by God, to make 
known ? Whence have you a sense of the 
impending judgment of the Almighty? I 



have plainly told } T ou the only method of 
avoiding it, by a sincere repentance, which 
can only be evinced by the conformity of 
the heart and life to the word and will of 
God. And begin not to say within yourselves, 
We have Abraham to our father : for I say 
unto you, that God is able of these stones to 
raise up children unto Abraham. Deceive 
not yourselves with a vain presumption 
that eternal blessings are yours, merely on 
the score of your lineal descent from Abra- 
ham; such pretence will avail you nothing; 
for to partake of the promises made to 
that father of the faithful alone, spiritually 
considered, you must shew forth some re- 
semblance of his faith and piety. 

The Almighty Creator, who formed our 
first parent out of the dust, and caused 
Sarah to bear a son unto Abraham when 
the}^ were both well stricken in years, can, 
by virtue of his omnipotence, raise up 
children unto that faithful patriarch, even 
from these very stones ; children indeed, 
who by the integrity of their hearts, and 
purity of their lives, shall prove their spi- 
ritual alliance to Abraham, and share with 
him the promised salvation. 

The Baptist, by this plain, but honest, 
declaration, at once set at nought the 
towering expectations of this hypocritical 
tribe, by shewing them that God respected 
the heart alone, and that all their pretences 
to descent, ceremonies, and other outward 
parade, was of no avail with him who 
tried the heart, and searched the reins, of 
the children of men. He went farther, and 
assured them, that conviction and confes- 
sion of sin were not sufficient, no, nor 
even a promise to forsake it ; but that there 
must be a speedy and actual putting it into 
practice. Repent ye, for the kingdom of hea- 
ven is at hand. Delay not this important 
work, for the judgments of the Almighty 
are at hand ; therefore, if you continue in 

your 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



C3 



vour sins, impending ruin will certainly 
tall upon you. 

Nothing: could be more sincere, nothing 
better calculated, than this doctrine of the 
forerunner of the blessed Jesus ; it struck 
at the verv root of the Jewish prejudices, 
which induced too many of them vainly 
to rely on outward rites and ceremonies, 
prayers, fastings, &c. which, if not per- 
formed with a proper spirit, and from pro- 
per views, were an abomination to a holy 
God. Nor did his conduct less reprove 
the pride and hypocrisy of the Scribes and 
Pharisees, than his doctrine ; for whereas 
those upstart people used to shun the con- 
verse of the publicans, and meaner sort, 
and would rarely deign to give them in- 
struction ; the humble Baptist received 
their applications in the most submissive 
manner, and preached to them the abso- 
lute necessity of repentance, faith, and 
obedience. 

Indeed, throughout the whole of his 
ministration, he happily adapted his dis- 
courses to the circumstances and capacities 
of the various people he addressed ; and 
took every pious means to prepare them 
for the reception of the promised Messiah, 
who was shortly to appear amongst them 
in the glorious character of Saviour and 
Redeemer of Israel. 

Thus, by a life of inflexible virtue, dis- 
courses nervous and pathetic, exhortations 
sincere and fervent, and rebukes honest 
and courageous, the Baptist became re- 
nowned throughout the region of Judea. 
Such was the admiration of the people at 
his life and doctrine, that from the vision 
of his father Zacharias in the temple, the 
arrival of the Magi at Jerusalem, the pro- 
phecies of Simeon, (circumstances recent 
in their memories,) they began to con- 
jecture that John might be the promised 
Messiah, and were even ready to pro- 



nounce him the Redeemer of Israel so 
that, had he aspired to worldly dignity, he 
might, for a time, have shone in all the 
grandeur of human pomp, and claimed a 
regard superior to any of the sons of men. 
But, pious in principle, and humble in 
heart, he could not arrogate honours of 
which he was conscious of his unwor- 
thiness ; and therefore honestly undeceived 
his numerous followers, by assuring them, 
that so far from being the glorious Person 
promised, he was only his forerunner ; 
and that such was his own inferiority, that 
he was unworthy of doing his most menial 
offices. I indeed baptize you Tiith water; 
but one mightier than I cometh, the latclitt of 
nhose shoes 1 am not worthy to unloose, Luke 
iii. 16. 

During the time of the Baptist's con- 
tinuance at Bethabara, the blessed Jesus 
left his retirement at Nazareth, and, pre- 
vious to his public ministry, repaired to 
the banks of the river Jordan, where John 
was executing his commission from above, 
in order to be there baptized by him. We 
cannot impute this conduct of our Lord 
to any necessity there was of his conform- 
ing to the institution of baptism : for 
purity needs not cleansing : it is therefore 
evident, that his motive was to add a 
sanction to that ordinance, for ever after 
appointed to be the initiating rite of 
Christianity, Go, baptize all nations, 6cc. 

It appears that John immediately, as it 
were by a prophetic revelation, knew the 
Saviour of the world ; for we find from 
the Evangelist, that he acknowledges his 
superiority, and declined the office : I hace 
need to be baptized of thee : and co??iest thou 
to me? Our Lord's answer, though short, is 
very full and expressive : Sutter it to be so 
now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righ- 
teousness. — As if he had said, Regard not 
the precedence at this time, but perform 



24 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



thy office ; for it is necessary that we 
should, in the minutest point, conform to 
the Divine will, by which this institution is 
enjoined. 

This remonstrance removed the objec- 
tions of John, and he baptized the imma- 
culate Jesus in the river Jordan, in the 
presence of numerous spectators. 

When the ceremony was performed, as 
he needed not the instructions usually 
given on the occasion, he went up straight- 
way out of the water, and, kneeling on the 
bank of the river, fervently addressed his 
almighty Father for an abundant effusion 
of his Holy Spirit ; as he was now entering 
on his public ministry, the prelude of his 
important mission, the end of which was 
the salvation of mankind. 

His prayer was heard, his request was 
granted ; and an immediate attestation of 
the Divine pleasure given, by a visible ray 
of glory around him, and an audible voice 
proceeding from the Holy Spirit, in the 
form of a dove, and pronouncing these 
words, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased ; distinguishing his peculiar ap- 
probation of the blessed Jesus, by the 
epithet beloved, as well as his standing in 
that relation to him in a manner nearer 
than any of the human race, who are call- 
ed, in common, the sons of men. This 
voice resembled not any human sound ; but 
was loud and awful, like the thunders of 
heaven, in order to strike with reverence 
the surrounding multitude, and publicly 
declare the holy mission of the promised 
Messiah. 

The blessed Jesus was called, in the Old 
Testament, the Son of God; but was on 
this occasion declared, by the Almighty 
himself, to be the long-expected Deliverer 
of Israel. Thus all who were present at 
this marvellous descent of the Holy Spirit, 
were amply convinced of the divine mis- 



sion of our blessed Lord, by an infallible 
testimony from above : this being the Star 
that was to come out of Jacob, and the Scep- 
tre that was to arise out of Israel ; the Skit 
loh, foretold by the patriarch Jacob ; the 
Great Prophet, by Moses; the Holy One, by 
David ; the Prince of peace, by Isaiah ; 
and the Son of man. 

But this remarkable event tended much 
more to the glory of the Messiah than all 
those prophecies ; as it was, in some mea- 
sure, a real display of what they could 
only picture in the dark. 

Let our Lord's submitting himself to 
baptism, teach us a holy exactness and care 
in the observance of those positive institu- 
tions which owe their obligations merely to 
a Divine command ; for thus it also be- 
cometh us to fulfil all righteousness ; lest, 
by breaking one of the least of Christ's 
commandments, and teachins; others to do 
it, we become unworthy of a part in the 
kingdom of heaven. 

Let us remember in how distinguishing 
a sense Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed of 
God, to whom the Father hath not given » 
the Spirit by measure, but hath poured it 
out upon him in the most abundant de- 
gree. Let us trace the workings of this 
Spirit in grace and holiness ; earnestly 
praying that this holy unction may from 
Christ our head descend upon our souls. 
May his enlivening Spirit kindle its sacred 
flame there with such vigour, that many 
waters may not be able to quench it, nor 
the floods of temptation to drown it ! 

CHAP. IV. 

Commencement of our Saviour's Ministry. — 
His Temptation in the Wilderness. — Depu- 
tation of the Sanhedrim to John the Bap- 
tist. — First Miracle wrought by the blessed 
Jesus. 

THE 



AND SAVIOUR, 

PTHHE great Redeemer having thus cora- 
plied with the institution of baptism, 
and received a most convincing testimony 
of his heavenly Father's approbation, by 
the miraculous descent and effusion of the 
Holy Ghost upon him, while praying on 
the banks of Jordan, in the presence of a 
multitude of spectators, entered on his 
public ministry, at the age of thirty years, 
according to the custom of the priests 
among the Jews. 

It was apprehended by the people, that 
as he had just begun his public office, he 
would repair to Jerusalem, the seat of 
power and grandeur, in order to display 
to the mighty and the learned his miracu- 
lous abilities and effulgent glories. 

But, averse to human parade, the hea- 
venly-minded Jesus preferred solitude to 
the noise and hurry of public life ; he 
therefore retired into the wilderness, in 
order to prepare himself by fasting, me- 
ditation, prayer, and sustaining tempta- 
tion, for the important work on which he 
was entering, the salvation of mankind. 

To promote this grand design, the evan- 
gelists write, that this retirement into the 
wilderness was in consequence of the im- 
mediate direction of the divine Spirit. 
Though solitude itself is melancholy, the 
blessed Jesus added to the dismal scene, 
by retiring on a barren spot, surrounded 
by high and craggy mountains, and form- 
ing a dark and gloomy chaos. 

In this wild and dreary situation the 
great Redeemer, as Moses and Elijah had 
done before him, fasted forty days and 
forty nights, maintained an incessant com- 
munion with his heavenly Father, digested 
the doctrine he was about to deliver, and 
the obedience he came to perform ; and, 
by a total abstinence from food for forty 
days and forty nights, evinced the divinity 
of his mission ; or, in other words, proved 



JESUS CHRIST. 25 

that he was a teacher from God. But the 
melancholy solitude of a desert, and the 
extremes of hunger and thirst, were but a 
small part of our Saviour's sufferings in 
the wilderness. Satan, that implacable 
foe to mankind, was permitted to buffet 
him with the most insinuating wiles, and 
assail him with the most alluring tempta- 
tions, in order to attempt the defeat of 
Heaven's most gracious designs, and keep 
mankind under the dreadful dominion of 
sin and death. 

The enemies of revelation have not fail- 
ed to represent this event in a most ludi- 
crous manner ; if any, therefore, should 
demand why God permitted his only Son, 
the Saviour of the world, to be tempted 
by the devil, whose power was deemed to 
be restrained, we reply as follows : One 
cause of the Redeemer's being suffered to 
be tempted was, that he, being personally 
acquainted with the wiles of Satan, might 
become a faithful and compassionate 
high-priest, know how to succour his peo- 
ple in time of adversity, and pity them 
when they fell into temptations. 

That in order to be a shining pattern of 
every virtue, and also a wise and valiant 
general, the blessed Redeemer underwent 
all the difficulties and trials attending his 
service, that we, being animated by his 
glorious example, might not sink under 
the pressure and troubles which God, for 
our good, should be pleased to lay upon us. 

The Saviour of the world hath not only 
been exposed to poverty and ridicule, but 
also to the most trying temptations of 
Satan; that as the Captain of our salvation 
has undergone the same, we ought not to 
faint when we are tempted, but, like him, 
be able to withstand the fiery darts of the 
devil. 

It doubtless appears highly proper, in 
order that our blessed Lord and Master 
G might 



26 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



might both enter upon and prosecute his 
ministry with more glory to himself and 
advantage to mankind, that he should pre- 
viously overcome the most subtle arts of 
that deceiver, who, under the mask of a 
serpent, seduced our first parents, and in- 
volved them and their posterity in one 
common ruin. 

The peculiar devices used by the old 
serpent to tempt the Son of God, during 
the time of his fasting, are not recorded 
in holy writ, and consequently cannot be 
ascertained. 

But at the expiration of the forty days, 
when the blessed Jesus had endured the 
keenest hunger, the tempter, to make proof 
of the divinity of his mission, insolently 
demanded, why he bore the sensations of 
hunger? since, if he was the Son of God, 
he must have power to change even the 
stones of that dreary wilderness into bread; 
and by so marvellous a transmutation, he 
might have the satisfaction of knowing 
the truth of what was said concerning him 
at his baptism. 

But our blessed Saviour repelled this de- 
vice, by citing the words of Moses, which 
implied, that God, whenever it seemed 
good in his sight, could, by extraordinary 
means, provide for the support of the hu- 
man race. Man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every zvord of God, Luke iv. 4. 

Satan being defeated in this effort, took 
him to the top of a very high mountain, 
and, thinking to work upon him by an- 
other artifice, shewed him a bright view of 
all the kingdoms of the world, with their 
alluring glories, promising him universal 
empire over the whole, if he would bow 
down and yield to him the honour of the 
benefaction. 

But observe his accursed pride and arro- 
gance, in promising that which is the gift 
of God alone, universal empire over the 



earth ; and requiring what was due to none 
but the Supreme, — religious homage. This 
blasphemy, as well as insolence, incited 
the blessed Jesus to exert his divine autho- 
rity, and command him in a peremptory 
manner, to desist ; citing this special in- 
junction from sacred writ, Thou shalt wor- 
ship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt 
thou serve. Thus repelled, he repeated the 
attempt, and, having taken our Lord to 
Jerusalem, placed him on the pinnacle ol 
the temple, and, by a taunt of insolence, 
urged him to prove the truth of his mission 
by casting himself down from thence ; 
citing, as an encouragement for him to 
comply with his desire, a text from the 
Psalms : If thou be the Son of God, cast thy- 
self down ; for it is written, He shall give his 
angels charge concerning thee, and in their 
hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time 
thou dash thy foot against a stone, Matt. iv. 6. 
But our Saviour soon baffled this attempt, 
by another apt quotation from Scripture, 
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, Matt, 
iv. 7- Thou shalt not provoke the Lord, 
either by disobeying his command, or by 
an impertinent curiosity to know more 
concerning his mind and will than he is 
pleased to reveal. 

Thus baffled in all his arts and devices, 
by the wisdom and power of the Son ot 
God, he departed from him, and an host 
of celestial spirits, dispatched from the 
regions of bliss, came and ministered re- 
freshment to our Saviour, after his victory 
over the great enemy and deceiver of man- 
kind. 

Hence, notwithstanding the ridicule of 
the infidel, Christians may derive great 
encouragement to fight manfully against 
the flesh, the world, and the devil, under 
the banner of the great Captain of their 
salvation, who is ever ready to supply them 
with spiritual armour to sustain the combat 

with 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



27 



with that inveterate and subtle foe, whose 
devices he has experienced, being in every 
respect tempted like them. 

During the time of our Saviour's retire- 
ment in the wilderness, his faithful har- 
binger, the Baptist, being assured, from the 
miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit, and 
other concurring testimonies, that Jesus 
was the promised and long-expected Mes- 
siah, continued publishing his mission to 
the multitude ; so that the rulers in Jeru- 
salem received information of the surpris- 
ing events that had happened in Betha- 
bara, beyond Jordan, before they saw the 
blessed Jesus, in confirmation of whose 
mission and doctrine they were effected. 

Prompted hy curiosit}^, they dispatched 
a deputation of Priests and Levites to the 
Baptist, to demand of him who he was ; 
whether he was the Messiah, or Elias ; or 
a prophet risen from the dead, to precede 
the Messiah, the powerful Prince so ear- 
nestly expected by the whole nation of 
Israel ? 

The Baptist frankly replied, that he was 
not the Messiah whom the5 r expected ; nor 
Elias, who, as they had vainly thought, 
would personally appear amongst them ; 
nor an}^ other prophet risen from the dead ; 
but at the same time hinted to them, that 
though he was not Elias himself, yet he 
was that person spoken of by the prophet 
Isaiah, and him of whom he thus prophe- 
sied, The voice of him that crieth in the wil- 
derness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord: 
make straight in the desert a highway for our 
God, Isa. xl. 3. 

The Priests and Levites, not sufficiently 
gratified with this reply of the Baptist, 
demanded of him, why he assumed the 
power of baptizing the people, if he was 
neither the Messiah, nor Elias, nor any of 
the ancient prophets risen from the dead ? 
To this demand John answered, I indeed 



baptize, to shew the necessity of repent- 
ance ; but my baptism is only that of 
water, and wholly ineffectual in itself to 
the remission of sins : but that washing 
foretold by Zacharias, is of most sovereign 
effect ; it is not my province, but solely 
that of the Messiah, who is actually upon 
earth and among you, though ye know 
him not, because he hath not manifested 
himself unto the world. The Messiah is 
so far exalted beyond me, in power and 
dignity, that I am not worthy to do him 
the meanest offices. 

The day after the departure of the 
Priests and Levites from Bethabara, our 
blessed Lord left the wilderness, and re- 
paired thither himself, while John was yet 
aaptizing, and preaching the doctrine of 
repentance. 

The Baptist, as his grand business was 
to direct all persons to the Messiah, for life 
and salvation in and through him, em- 
braced this seasonable opportunity of 
pointing him out to the multitude : Behold 
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin 
of the world I Lest the attending: crowd 

-a 

should surmise, that it had been previously 
concerted between Jesus and John, that 
the former should assume, and the latter 
give him, the appellation of Messiah, he 
publicly and solemnly declared, that he 
was equally with them ignorant of the 
pretensions of Jesus to that high character, 
till he saw the miraculous descent of the 
Holy Ghost, and heard him pronounced, 
in the most awful manner, the Son of 
God. And John bare record, saying, I sazo 
the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, 
and it abode upon him. And I knew him 
not : but he that sent me to baptize :. it/i water, 
the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shah 
see the Spirit descending, and remaining on 
him, the same is he which bapiizeth with 
the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare 

record. 



28 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



record, that this is the Son of God, John i. 
32, 33, 34. 

The Baptist having made this public 
declaration, the Messiah left Bethabara, 
but returned the clay following ; and John, 
happening to stand with two of his follow- 
ers on the bsmk of the river Jordan, pointed 
to him as he passed, and in a pious rap- 
ture repeated what he had addressed to 
the multitude the preceding day, Behold 
the Lamb of God! It is hence imagined, 
that these two disciples, or followers of the 
Baptist, were absent at the time of the 
descent of the Holy Ghost, and for that 
reason this method was taken of pointing- 
out to them the venerable person of the 
promised Redeemer of the world. 

Animated with an ardent desire of hear- 
ing, as well as seeing, this extraordinary 
person, they left John, and followed Jesus, 
who, conscious of their design, turned 
about, and, with the utmost affability, gave 
them an invitation to the place of his resi- 
dence. The evangelist John informs us, 
that one of these disciples was Andrew, 
the brother of Simon Peter ; and it is con- 
jectured, from his silence, that himself was 
the other ; for it is remarkable, that in his 
writings he studiously conceals his own 
name. Be that as it will, it is abundantly 
evident, that the testimony of the Baptist, 
added to the tokens he had from the 
blessed Jesus, in the course of his con- 
verse with him, amply satisfied Andrew 
that he was indeed the promised Messiah, 
the Saviour and Redeemer of lost and pe- 
rishing sinners. 

Andrew soon after found his brother 
Peter, and brought him to our blessed 
Lord, who immediately called him by his 
name, telling him that he should after- 
wards be called Cephas, (which signifies a 
rock,) from his firm resolution of mind, 
and also because he should contribute 



towards the foundation of the Christian 
church. 

Some time after, Jesus casually met 
with Philip, an inhabitant of the town of 
Bethsaida, and said to him, Follow me. 
Philip immediately obeyed the divine 
command, having heard of the character 
and mission of our blessed Saviour. It is 
supposed that this disciple was present at 
the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit 
on our Lord at his baptism ; which being 
admitted, his ready compliance with his 
call is no matter of admiration. 

Philip meeting with Nathanael, an inha- 
bitant of Cana, a town in Galilee, informed 
him of the actual coming of the long ex- 
pected Messiah, that great Deliverer of 
fsrael, spoken of by Moses and the ancient 
prophets ; Jesus of Nazareth, the son of 
Joseph. Nathanael was assured, from the 
predictions concerning the Messiah, that 
he was to be descended from the line of 
David, and born in the city of Bethlehem, 
and therefore discovered an amazement at 
his beino; called Jesus of Nazareth; Can 
any good thing come out of Nazareth ? Can 
that most contemptible of places, Naza- 
reth, be supposed to have given birth to 
the mighty Saviour, the Prince of peace, 
especially as it was expressly foretold by 
the prophet, that he was to be born in 
Bethlehem, the city of David ? 

Notwithstanding the improbability of 
such an event, Nathanael listened to 
Philip, and determined on an examina- 
tion of the person whom he said was the 
promised Messiah. Accordingly, under 
his direction, he repaired to the blessed 
Jesus, who, knowing his character, saluted 
him on his approach with this honourable 
appellation, Behold an Israelite indeed, in 
whom is no guile ! 

Nathanael, amazed at our Lord's per- 
tinent address, as he had never before 

seen 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



29 



seen him, asked by what means he ob- 
tained such precise knowledge of him ? 
Our Lord replied, he had seen him under 
the fig-tree. Probably Nathanael had 
been praying under the fig-tree, and been 
overheard by our Lord, who, from the 
substance of his prayer, thus concluded 
his character ; for when the blessed Jesus 
informed him that he gave him that cha- 
racter on account of what had passed un- 
der the fig-tree, Nathanael perceived that 
he knew not only what passed at a dis- 
tance, but had access to the inmost 
thoughts of the heart, a property not al- 
lotted to mortals ; and therefore exclaimed 
with rapture, Rabbi, thou art the Son of 
God, thou art the King of Israel. 

Our Saviour then told him, he should 
hereafter have much stronger testimonials 
of the divinity of his mission, when he 
should be eye-witness to what the old pa- 
triarch Jacob had before seen in a vision, 
the angels of heaven descending and ascend- 
ing, to attend the person, and execute the 
commands, of the Son of man ; an appella- 
tion our blessed Lord assumed, not only 
as considering his humanity, but in order 
to fulfil most peremptorily that remark- 
able prediction of the prophet Daniel 
concerning him ; I saw in the night visions, 
and, behold, one like the Son of man came 
With the clouds of heaven, and came to the 
Ancient of days, and they brought him near 
before him. And there was given him do- 
minion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all 
people, nations, and languages, should serve 
him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom 
that which shall not be destroyed, Dan. vii. 
13, 14. 

The great Redeemer, having attested 
the divinity of his mission by man}r incon- 
testible evidences, and made five disciples, 
departed for Galilee, where, soon after his 



arrival, he was invited, with his mother 
and disciples, to a marriage feast at Cana. 
a place near Nazareth. 

At these nuptials there happened to be 
a scarcity of wine, and his mother, who 
interested herself in the conduct of the 
feast, and was therefore desirous that everv 
thing should be done with decorum, ap- 
plied to her Son, hoping he would be able 
to remedy the defect. 

She had, doubtless, conceived he had 
the power of working miracles, and was 
therefore desirous that he would give proof 
of his ability in the presence of her friends, 
who were assembled at the marriage. 

Addressing herself, therefore, to her 
Son, she told him, They have no wine. Our 
Lord gently reproved her, in these words, 
If oman, what have I to do with thee? mine 
hour is not yet come : that is, the time or 
period of my public ministry is not yet 
arrived ; nor is it time for me to display 
my supernatural powers. 

Notwithstanding this mild reproof, his 
mother still entertained an opinion that 
he would interest himself in behalf of her 
and the company, and therefore ordered 
the servants punctually to obey his com- 
mands. 

Our blessed Lord, being assured that 
working a miracle would greatty tend to 
confirm the faith of his young disciples, 
exerted his divine power, by ordering the 
servants to fill six water-pots, containing 
each about twenty gallons, with water ; 
which was no sooner clone, than the whole 
was converted into excellent wine. 

He then ordered them to draw, and 
bear to the governor of the feast ; who 
beiijo- ionorant of the miracle that had 
been wrought, and astonished at the pre- 
ference of this wine to that which had 
been served up at the beginning of the 
feast, addressed himself to the bridegroom, 

H in 



30 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



in the hearing of the whole company, tell- 
ing him that, contrary to the usual custom, 
he haa reserved the best wine to the last; 
at the same time commending so judicious 
a practice, as a plain proof of his appro- 
bation of his friends present at the enter- 
tainment. The bridegroom was equally 
surprised at the address of the governor 
of the feast, and the occasion of it, which 
was effected by the supernatural power of 
our blessed Lord. 

This miracle, which was the first wrought 
by Jesus, confirmed the faith of his follow- 
ers, and spread his renown throughout the 
adjacent country. — The votaries of infide- 
lity have not failed to arraign the truth of 
this event, as well as to vent their sarcastic 
humour upon it. Their mirth and ridicule 
seem chiefly founded on a supposition that 
most of the company were intoxicated, and 
consequently more liable to delusion ; but 
we desire them to suspend their opinion, 
or at least their judgment, a little, while 
we remind them, that the governor's 
speech to the bridegroom, ( Every man at 
the beginning doth set forth good wine, and 
when men have well drunk, then that which is 
worse,) does not imply even such a suppo- 
sition ; but an evident reference to the 
manner in which the entertainment was 
conducted, a manner much preferable to 
that now customarily followed. 

Nor can these wise people (in their own 
conceit) rationally think that Jesus order- 
ed, or expected, that all the wine he had 
furnished should be expended at this en- 
tertainment ; for, according to the Jewish 
custom on these occasions, it continued a 
week. — Permit us likewise to observe, that 
there might be a very important reason 
assigned for our Lord's furnishing such 
abundance ; because, if the quantity had 
been considerably less, the miracle would 
have been much less apparent, and the 



enemies of Christianity, ever ready to 
grasp at the shadow of a pretence, might 
have denied that a miracle was wrought at 
all, it having been easy to convey away 
a small quantity of water, and substitute 
the like quantity of wine in its place ; 
whereas such a deception must be allowed 
impracticable in so large a quantity, the 
transmutation being momentary. 

The Deists have likewise made much 
parade of argument concerning the size of 
these water-pots. In this we give them 
their utmost scope, persuaded that all 
which they can say on that head will not 
in the least tend to invalidate the Christian 
cause. 

How easily could he, who thus turned 
water into wine, have transformed every 
entertainment of a common table into the 
greatest delicacies, and have regaled him- 
self daily with royal dainties ! But, far 
superior to such animal gratifications, he 
chose the severities of a much plainer life. 
Blessed Jesus ! who can say whether thou 
art greater in what thou didst, or in what 
thou didst not do ? May none of us thy 
followers be too intent in indulging our 
taste, or any of our other senses ; but, 
pursuing those intellectual and devotional 
pleasures which were thy meat and thy 
drink on earth, may we wait for that good 
wine which thou reservest for thy people 
to the last, and for those richer dainties 
with which thou wilt feast those who shall 
drink it with thee in thy Father's king- 
dom ! Matt, xx vi. 20. 

The blessed Jesus having thus, by di- 
vers means, confirmed the faith of his 
disciples, and attested the truth and di- 
vinity of his mission, among those with 
whom he had been brought up, departed 
from Cana, and proceeded towards Jeru- 
salem, in order to keep the approaching 
passover. 

CHAP 



AND SAVIOUR, 

CHAP. V. 

Expulsion of the Profaners of the Temple. — 
Jesus converses with Nicodemus. — Baptizes 
in Judea. — Instructs a poor Samaritan. — 
Heals a sick Person at Capernaum. — He- 
tires again to Nazareth, and is expelled 
thence by his impious Countrymen. 

UR blessed Lord, immediately on his 
arrival at Jerusalem, repaired to the 
-emple ; where he was not a little shocked 
at beholding a place, dedicated to the 
solemn service of Almighty God, so pros- 
tituted to purposes of fraud and avarice, 
and become the resort of traitors of eve^ 
kind. It is evident there must have been 
a grand market for oxen, sheep, and doves, 
at such times, for Josephus tells us that no 
less than 256,000 victims were offered at 
one Passover. 

Such abuse could not long escape his 
notice or correction, having an absolute 
right to chastise so flagrant a perversion of 
a place that, strictly speaking, was his own. 
The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come 
to his temple ; even the Messenger of the Co- 
venant, whom ye delight in : behold, he shall 
come, saith the Lord of Hosts. 

Accordingly the blessed Jesus, whose 
pious soul was vexed at their profanation 
of the sacred place, drove out the traders, 
and overset the tables of the money-chan- 
gers, saying unto them that sold doves, 
Take these things hence : make not my Fa- 
ther's house a house of merchandise. 

These mercenary wretches appear to 
have been struck at once with a conscious- 
ness of their guilt, and the severity of 
our Lord's reproof ; as they immediately 
departed, without making the least resist- 
ance. But our Lord's conduct in this 
affair, carrying with it every token of zeal, 
for which the ancient prophets were so re- 



JESUS CHRIST. 31 

markable, the council assembled, and de- 
termined to inquire by what authority he 
attempted such a reformation; requiring, 
at the same time, a demonstrative proof of 
the divinity of his commission. 

To gratify their curiosity, our blessed 
Lord referred them only to the miracle of 
his own resurrection : Destroy, says he, 
probably laying his hand on his breast, this 
temple, and I will raise it up in three days. 
The rulers, mistaking his meaning, imagin- 
ed that he referred to the superb and loft}^ 
temple finished by Herod, and therefore 
told him such a relation was highly im- 
probable, nor had they the least reason to 
think he could possibly rebuild, in three 
days, that magnificent structure which had 
been finished at immense expense, and 
was the labour of so many years. 

Though the blessed Jesus declined com- 
pliance with the request of the mighty and 
noble amonost the inhabitants of Jerusa- 
lem, he wrought several miracles in the 
presence of the common people, in order 
to confirm the doctrines he delivered, and 
prove the divinity of his mission. 

As there had not been any miracles 
wrought amongst them for a considerable 
time, though many were recorded in their 
sacred books, they beheld our blessed Lord 
with amazement and veneration; and num- 
bers were satisfied that he v^as the long- 
promised Messiah, the Desire of all nations, 
so often foretold by the ancient prophets. 
For wise reasons, however, he did not 
publicly discover that he was the Great 
Prophet, as he knew that the faith of num- 
bers was yet but weak, and that, conse- 
quently, many would desert his caus« , 
when the}' found he was opposed by the 
Sanhedrim, or great council of the nation, 
and did not set up a worldly kingdom, as 
they thought the expected Messiah was to 
do. But the miracles wrought by the holy 

J esus 




32 THE LIFE OF OUI 

Jesus did not excite the wonder and asto- 
nishment of the common and illiterate 
class of the people alone. 

Nicodemus, a principal person among 
them, impartially reflecting on his won- 
drous works, so astonishing in their nature, 
so demonstrative in their proof, so salutary 
in their effect, so happily adapted to the 
confirmation of his doctrines, and so per- 
fectly agreeable to the attributes of the 
Deity, as well as the predictions of the 
ancient prophets, concerning the Messiah, 
the Sun of righteousness, who was to rise with 
healing in his wings ; was perfectly assured, 
that nothing less than Omnipotence itself 
could produce such wonders ; and thence, 
like many others of his countrymen, con- 
cluded, that Jesus was of a truth sent of 
God; which last term is the meaning of 
the word Messiah. But scruples still arose 
in his mind, when, on the other hand, he 
considered the obscurity of his birth, and 
the meanness of his appearance, so dif- 
ferent from the exalted notions the people 
of the Jews always entertained concerning 
this powerful Prince, who was to erect his 
throne in the mighty city of Jerusalem, 
and subject to his dominion all the states 
and kingdoms of the earth. To obviate, 
therefore, these scruples, and solve these 
perplexing doubts, Nicodemus resolved on 
an interview with the blessed Jesus ; but 
choosing to conceal his visit from the other 
members of the Sanhedrim, who were 
greatly averse to his person and doctrine, 
he chose the night, as most convenient for 
that purpose. 

His salutation of the mighty Redeemer 
of Israel was this : Rabbi, we know that 
thou art a teacher come from God ; for no 
man can do these miracles that thou doest, 
except God be with him, John iii. 2. 

Ptabbi, I am sufficiently convinced that 
thou art immediately sent as a teacher 



I BLESSED LORD 

jio.d mom .adt _io noiico^teg 

from on high ; for nothing less than power 

divine could enable thee to perform the 
miracles which thou hast wrought in the 
presence of multitudes. — But this saluta- 
tion by no means implies that Nicodemus 
thought Jesus the great promised Messiah, 
even the Redeemer of Israel ; nor could he 
obtain that knowledge till it was revealed 
to him by the blessed Spirit of God. 

We may observe, that our Saviour, 
waving all formality and circumlocution, 
which tend to no real profit, immediately 
preaches to this noted Rabbi the first great 
doctrine of Christianity — Regeneration : 
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man 
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom oj 
God. Nicodemus, I declare unto thee, as 
a truth of the last importance ; Verily, 
verily, unless a man be regenerated in the 
spirit of his mind, have his will and affec- 
tions transferred from earthly to spiritual 
objects, he cannot see the kingdom of God, 
which is holy and spiritual in its nature 
and enjoyments. — This was a mysterious 
system to the Rabbi, whose religious views 
extended no farther than rites and cere- 
monies, and were bounded by time and 
space ; besides, he thought the very posi- 
tion of our Lord an absurdity in terms. 
How can a man be bom when he is old? can 
he enter a second time into his mother s womb, 
and be born? Our Lord replies to this 
question, Except a man be born of water, 
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
kingdom of God. The regeneration which 
I preach is not of a natural, but of a spi- 
ritual nature ; for unless as great a change 
be wrought on the soul of a man by the 
Holy Spirit, as passed upon his body when 
he was born into the world, he cannot see 
the kingdom of God, in such a way as to se- 
cure an interest in its invaluable blessings, 
nor be an heir of divine glory, which con- 
sists not in earthly splendour, and the 

gratification 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



33 



gratification of the meaner passions, but 
in an exemption from whatever is earthly, 
sensual, and devilish, and the prosecution 
of whatever is heavenly, holy, and spiri- 
tual. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; 
and that which is bom of the Spirit is spirit. 
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be 
born again. It is a truth that you are all 
concerned in, that you yourselves, even 
though you are Jews and Pharisees, and 
rulers of the people — ye must be born 
again ; since the degeneracy of the human 
nature is common to all. You must un- 
dergo a spiritual regeneration, a renova- 
tion of the heart, which changes the whole 
man, and fits you for the participation of 
heavenly blessedness. 

This important work is likewise spiri- 
tual in its operation, unseen by mortal 
eyes, being wrought on the heart of man 
by the powerful influence of the Holy 
Spirit, which changes his nature, and, 
with respect to eternal things, makes him 
another, a new creature. The wind blow- 
eth where it listeth, and thou hearest the 
sound thereof but canst not tell whence it 
cometh and whither it goeth ; so is every one 
that is born of the Spirit. 

Notwithstanding this explanation of the 
blessed Jesus, Nicodemus was so prepos- 
sessed with partiality towards the Jews, 
who on account of their alliance to Abra- 
ham thought they were the people of God, 
entitled to heaven, and consequently in 
no need of this new operation of the mind 
called regeneration, that he again demand- 
ed, How can these things be? The divine 
Instructor then reproves his dulness and 
misapprehension of what he had so clearly 
explained and propounded to him, especi- 
ally as he was himself a teacher of the peo- 
ple, and one of the great council of the 
nation : Art thou a master of Israel, and 
knowest not these things? The doctrines I 



deliver are not fiction and mere surmw , 
but founded on eternal truth, immediate! v 
revealed from God, and consistent with the 
will of heaven. I am witness to the same, 
and therefore affirm that such testimony is 
sufficient to render them valid. But your 
prejudices still prevail, nor can your unbe- 
lief be conquered by all the arguments I 
can advance. We speak that we do know, 
and testify that we have seen ; and ye receive 
not our witness. 

If ye thus reject the first principles ot 
the Christian religion, such as the neces- 
sity of regeneration, or the influence of the 
Spirit of God upon the heart of man, how 
will ye believe the sublimer truths I shall 
hereafter deliver concerning the kingdom 
of God, or state of the saints in glory ? If 
I inform you of spiritual transactions in 
this lower world, and ye believe not ; how 
can ye believe if I tell you of those things 
which relate solely to another and heavenly 
state ? But to confirm your belief in what 
I have delivered, know, that my assured 
knowledge of these things is derived from 
the Father of light, the God of truth, by 
whom I am vested with gifts superior to 
any of the ancient prophets. 

No man hath ascended the regions of 
immortality, and descended from thence, 
but the Son of man ; consequently, no man 
but the Son of man can, with truth and 
certainty, reveal the immediate will of the 
Father who is in heaven. Your great law- 
giver, Moses, ascended not there ; Mount 
Sinai was the summit of his elevation ; 
whereas, the Son of man, who was in hea- 
ven, and came down from thence with a 
divine commission to sinful mortals, had 
the most clear and convincing proofs of 
the will of his Almighty Father, pene- 
trated into the designs of infinite wisdom 
and grace, and consequently must be 
higher than any prophet, being in a 

I peculiar 



34 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



peculiar sense, the Prophet of the most 
high God, or Angel of his presence. 

The divine preacher, who spake as no 
man ever spake, likewise labours to eradi- 
cate the favourite principle of the Jews, I 
mean, that of confining all blessings, tem- 
poral and eternal, to their own nation and 
people ; as well as to shew the vanity of 
their expecting the appearance of the 
Messiah in pomp and magnificence. 

To effect this glorious design, he lays open 
to the Rabbi, that it was agreeable both to 
the doctrines of Moses, as well as the will of 
God, that the Redeemer, in this state of 
mortality, should be exposed to poverty and 
distress of every kind ; that his conquests 
were not to be of a temporal nature, but 
over the hearts and wills of men ; that his 
throne was not to be established in the 
earthly, but heavenly Jerusalem ; previous 
to which he was to shed his blood, as, by 
virtue of the same, all of every nation and 
kingdom throughout the earth, might pass 
into the heavenly world, and there, for ever, 
provided they relied on his merits, and 
conformed their lives to the doctrines he 
preached, enjoy that perfection of bliss, 
which, through his sufferings, was provided 
for them, by God himself, to all eternity. 

Let us remember, therefore, that it is not 
enough that a new name be given, or that 
a new profession be assumed ; it is not 
enough that we are descended from the 
most pious ancestors, that we have been 
externally devoted to God by the early 
seal of his covenant, or that we openly 
have made a solemn and express profes- 
sion of our own faith and obedience, and 
have been born of baptismal water in our 
riper years ; there must be a new nature 
implanted, a new creation formed in our 
souls by the almighty energy of the eter- 
nal Spirit, or it had been better for us that 
we had never been born at all. 



That God Almighty, the Father, out of 
his unsupplicated, unmerited, grace and 
mercy to the sinful race of men, sent his 
only begotten Son to purchase eternal life, 
through the effusion of his own blood, for 
all of every nation and kingdom through- 
out the earth, who should believe in him ; 
that is, who should believe in the divinity 
of his mission, the efficacy of his atone- 
ment, and, in consequence of that faith, 
conform to the rules of his gospel. Only 
let your conversation be as becometh the gospel 
of Christ. Condemnation, justly passed on 
all transgressors of the law of God, (which 
are all mankind,) can alone be averted ac- 
cording to the divine institution, the pro- 
priety of which it is the height of impiety 
and presumption to call in question. By 
faith in the blessed Jesus, such a faith as 
we have just explained, he that believeth on 
him is not condemned; but he that believeth 
not is condemned already, because he hath not 
believed in the name of the only begotten Son 
of God. 

It appears, from the future conduct of 
Nicodemus, that, instead of supposing 
Jesus to be only a teacher come from God, 
he was fully convinced that he was the 
Messiah, the Redeemer of Israel: for he 
afterwards constantly espoused his cause 
in the great council of the nation ; and 
when his countrymen put him to an igno- 
minious death, he, together with Joseph of 
Arimathea, buried him, when all others had 
forsaken him. 

The time of the passover at Jerusalem 
being expired, Jesus, together with his 
disciples, withdrew into the remote parts 
of Judea, where he continued a consider- 
able time, preaching the kingdom of God, 
and baptizing the new converts. John 
the Baptist being also, at the same time, 
baptizing in the river Enon, a dispute 
arose between his disciples and certain 

Jews, 



AND SAVIOUR, 

Jews concerning the preference of the 
baptism of Jesus. 

Being unable to decide the point, they 
referred it to the opinion of John ; on 
which the pious Baptist immediately de- 
clared, that he was only the harbinger of 
the great Messiah, who baptized not only 
with water, but with the Holy Spirit; 
adding, that his own ministry was on the 
decline, as the beauty of the morning-star, 
the harbinger of the sun, decreases, when 
that fountain of light but dawns in the 
chambers of the east. 

The Baptist likewise mentioned to his 
disciples and hearers many circumstances ; 
tending to prove the divinity of the mission 
of the holy Jesus, and the important de- 
sign of his incarnation. He that believeth 
on the Son hath eternal life, but he that be- 
lieveth not the Son shall not see life ; but the 
wrath of God abideth on him. 

The Baptist, having publicly preached 
the great doctrine of salvation through 
faith in Jesus, departed from the wilder- 
ness of Judea, where he had continued a 
considerable time, and went into Galilee, 
often repairing to the court of Herod, who 
esteemed, or affected to esteem, both his 
preaching and person. But John, being- 
faithful in his ministry, could not fail to 
remonstrate on the injustice and impiety of 
a known practice of Herod, which was, his 
cohabiting with Herodias, his brother Phi- 
lip's wife ; and thereby incurring the dis- 
pleasure of that ambitious woman, he was, 
at her instance, cast into prison, and there 
reserved for future destruction. 

Whilst these things happened in Gali- 
lee, our blessed Lord continued preaching 
in the wilderness, whither great numbers 
resorted, attracted by curiosity, to see the 
miracles which fame reported he daily 
wrought. The success of his ministry ex- 
citing the envy of the hypocritical tribe 



JESUS CHRIST. 35 

of Pharisees, our blessed Lord thought 
proper to retire into Galilee, in order to 
promote the design of his mission in those 
parts. 

In the course of his journey, being weary 
with travelling in so warm a country, and 
excessively thirsty, he sat down in Samaria 
by a celebrated well, given by the old pa- 
triarch Jacob to his son Joseph, while his 
disciples were gone to the city to procure 
provisions. 

While the humble Jesus was sitting by 
the well-side, a woman, a native of the 
country, came with her pitcher to fetch 
water ; and our Lord requested of her 
to give him to drink. The appearance of 
Jesus astonished the woman, because she 
knew him to be a Jew; and the Samaritans 
were held in the utmost contempt by those 
people, who, indeed, arrogated a prefer- 
ence to all nations upon earth. But though 
she knew him to be a Jew, she knew not 
that he was the Son of God, full of grace 
and truth, divested of human prejudices, 
and the very essence of humility and 
every virtue. As the design of his mission 
and incarnation was to promote the real 
happiness of mankind, he embraced every 
opportunity of enforcing his salutary doc- 
trines ; and therefore, though his thirst was 
extreme, he delayed its gratification, in 
order to inform this woman, though of an 
infamous character, of the means by which 
she might obtain living water, or, in other 
words, eternal life. As the best method 
to effect this purpose, he gave her to un- 
derstand, that had she known the cha- 
racter of the supplicant, she would have 
eagerly satisfied his desire, and been re- 
taliated by a gift the most invaluable, even 
living water, issuing from the well of eter- 
nal salvation. 

The woman taking his words in the 
common acceptation, imagining that he 

su<xo;ested 



36 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



suggested his power of supplying her with 
water flowing from a perpetual spring, 
which, in that parched climate, appeared 
impossible, demanded of him if he was 
vested with a power superior to their fa- 
ther Jacob, who dug this well, drank out 
of it with his family, and left it for the 
benefit of posterity. 

The Saviour and friend of mankind, still 
benign in his purpose towards this poor 
sinner, replied, " That all who drank of 
the water of Jacob's well would thirst 
again, being but a temporary allay of a 
desire incident to human nature ; whereas 
those who drank of the water which he 
was ready to dispense, should never thirst; 
because that water flowed from the inex- 
haustible Fountain of Divine Grace, and 
could not be drained but with immensity 
itself." 

Though this great Preacher of Israel, by 
a simple and natural allegory, displayed 
the power of divine grace, the woman, 
ignorant of the allusion and mean i no- of 
the blessed Jesus, desired of him that 
water, that she might not thirst in future, 
nor have occasion to come to Jocob's well 
daily for water. 

To shew her the nature of sin, and 
thereby create in her soul desires after the 
water of life, the blessed Jesus, by some 
pertinent questions and replies, evinced his 
knowledge of her infamous course of life, 
and. by that means convinced her that he 
acted under an influence more than hu- 
man. To evade, however, the present sub- 
ject of discourse, which filled her with a 
degree of awe and fear, she proposed to 
his discussion a case long warmly con- 
tested between the Jews and Samaritans ; 
Whether mount Gerizim, or the city of 
Jerusalem, was destined by God as the 
place peculiarly set apart for religious wor- 
ship ? Our blessed Lord replied to this 



insignificant question, that it was not the 
place, but the manner, in which adoration 
was offered to the Father of spirits, that 
rendered such worship acceptable ; ob- 
serving, that God is a spirit, and they that 
worship him must worship him in spirit and 
in truth, John iv. 24. 

In consequence of this reply to her, 
which apparently referred to things spiri- 
tual and eternal, she informed the blessed 
Jesus of her expectation of the arrival of 
the promised Messiah, who should punctu- 
ally inform them concerning these points, 
so long undecisively contested. 

Our Lord, embracing the opportunity 
of preaching himself to this poor woman 
as the Saviour of sinners, replied without 
hesitation, / that speak unto thee am he. 

AVhile Jesus continued talking with the 
woman, his disciples returned, and ap- 
proached him at the very time when he 
told the woman that he was the Messiah. 
Though they were astonished at his conde- 
scension in conversing with an inhabitant 
of Samaria, and even of instructing her in 
the doctrines of religion, none presumed 
to ask him why he conversed with one 
who was an enemy to the Jews, and the 
worship in the temple of Jerusalem. But 
the woman, hearing Jesus call himself the 
Messiah, left her pitcher, and ran into the 
city to publish the glad tidings, That the 
great Deliverer of mankind was then sitting 
by the well of Jacob, and had told her all 
the secret transactions of her life. This 
report astonished the Samaritans, and, at 
the same time, roused their curiosity to see 
a person foretold by Moses and the pro- 
phets, and of whose appearance there was 
then so universal an expectation. 

The disciples, on their return, set before 
their Master the provision they had pur- 
chased ; but he, wholly absorbed in medi- 
tation, refused the refreshment so highly 

requisite, 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST 



37 



requisite, telling them he had meat to eat 
that they knew nothing of. This unexpected 
answer surprised his disciples, who, under- 
standing his words in their natural sense, 
asked one another, whether any person 
had, during their absence, supplied him 
with provisions? But Jesus soon explained 
the mystery, by telling them that he did 
not mean natural, but spiritual food ; that 
to execute the commission he had received 
from his Father, was far better to him than 
meat or drink ; and the satisfaction he was 
going to receive from the conversion of 
the Samaritans, much greater than any 
sensual enjoyments. 

Many of the Samaritans were now near 
Jesus, who, lifting up his eyes, and seeing 
the ways crowded with people coming to 
him from the city, stretched out his bene- 
volent hands towards them, and addressed 
his disciples in the following manner : Say 
not ye, There are yet four months, and then 
cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, 
Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields ; for 
they are white already to harvest, John iv. 
35. Behold yonder multitudes, how they 
are throno-ino- to hear the word, which has 

ft T 

only a few minutes been sown in their 
hearts ! It is not, therefore, always ne- 
cessary to wait with patience for the effect; 
for it sometimes immediately follows the 
cause. To gather this spiritual harvest, 
and finish the work of Him that sent me, 
is my proper food : adding, for the en- 
couragement of his disciples, As you have 
laboured with me in this harvest of souls, 
so shall 'you participate in the great re- 
compense of eternal rewards. He that 
reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit 
unto life eternal; that both he that soweth, 
and he that reapeth, may rejoice together, 
John iv. 36. 

Many of the people had been so affect- 
ed at the words of the woman, that they 



were fully persuaded Jesus could be no 
other than the great Messiah ; according- 
ly their first request was that he would 
deign to take up his residence in their city. 
The compassionate Redeemer of the hu- 
man race so far complied, as to stay with 
them two days, an interval which he 
spent in preaching to them the kingdom 
of God ; so that the greatest part of the 
city embraced the doctrine of the gospel, 
and at his departure said unto the wo- 
man, Now we believe, not because of thy say- 
ing ; for we have heard him ourselves, and 
know that this is indeed the Christ, the Sa- 
viour of the world, John iv. 42. 

Having accomplished his gracious de- 
sign in Samaria, Jesus continued his jour- 
ney to Galilee, to exercise his ministry, 
and preach there the kingdom of God ; 
telling his disciples, that the time was now 
accomplished which had been predeter- 
mined by Omnipotence, for erecting the 
happy kingdom of the Prince of peace. 

Our Lord had performed several mira- 
cles at Jerusalem during the passover, at 
which the inhabitants of Galilee were pre- 
sent. His preaching was, therefore, at 
first attended with great success, for they 
listened attentively to his doctrine, and 
received it with particular kindness and 
courtesy ; especially the people of Cana, 
where he had turned the water into wine. 

During his residence in that city, a no- 
bleman of Capernaum came to him, re- 
questing, with great humility and reve- 
rence, that he would come down and heal 
his son, who was at the point of death. 
Our blessed Saviour readily complied with 
the latter part of this request ; but to re- 
move a prejudice they had conceived, that 
it was necessary to be personally present 
in order to restore the sick person to health, 
he refused to go down to Capernaum, dis- 
missing the rather with this assurance, 

K that 



38 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



that his son was restored to health : Go thy 
way, thy son liveth, John iv. 50. The noble- 
man obeyed the word of Jesus, and imme- 
diately departed for his own house ; but 
before his arrival he was met by his ser- 
vants, with the joyful news that his son 
was recovered. On this the father in- 
quired at what time they perceived an al- 
teration for the better ? and from their an- 
swer was satisfied, that immediately after 
the words were spoken by the blessed Jesus, 
the fever left him, and he was recovered in 
a miraculous manner. This amazing in- 
stance of his power and goodness abun- 
dantly convinced the nobleman and his 
family, that Jesus was the true Messiah, the 
great Prophet so long promised to the world. 

After some stay in the city and neigh- 
bourhood of Cana, Jesus went to Nazareth, 
where he had spent the greatest part of his 
youth, and, as his constant custom was, 
went to the synagogue on the sabbath-day, 
and read that celebrated prediction of the 
Messiah in the prophet Isaiah : The Spirit 
of the Lord is upon me, because lie hath anoint- 
ed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he 
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to 
preach deliverance to the captives, and re- 
covering of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty 
them that are bruised ; to preach the accept- 
able year of the Lord, Luke iv. 18, 19- 

It should be remembered, that our bless- 
ed Saviour read this passage in the original 
Hebrew, which was then a dead language ; 
and, as he had never been taught letters, 
could do it only by inspiration from above. 
But he did more; he explained the passage 
with such strength of reason, and beauty 
of expression, that the inhabitants of Na- 
zareth, who well knew he had never been 
initiated into the rudiments of learning, 
heard him with astonishment. But as he 
performed no miracle in their city, they 
were offended at him. Perhaps they 



thought the place of his residence should 
have been his peculiar care ; and, as he 
could, with a single word, heal the sick at 
a distance, not a single person in Nazareth 
should have been afflicted with any kind 
of disease. That they really entertained 
sentiments of this kind, seems plain from 
our Saviour's own words : Ye mil surely say 
to me, Tliysician, heal thyself; whatever we 
have heard done in Capernaum, do also here 
in thy country ; — evidently alluding to the 
great and benevolent miracle he had 
wrought on the nobleman's son. 

But the holy Jesus, by enumerating the 
miracles Elijah had done in behalf of the 
widow of Sarepta, who was a heathen; and 
the inhabitants of an idolatrous city, in 
the time of famine, when many widows 
in Israel perished with hunger ; and of 
Naaman the Syrian, who was cured of his 
leprosy by the prophet Elisha, when num- 
bers of Jews, afflicted with the same 
loathsome disease, were suffered to con- 
tinue in their uncleanness ; sufficiently 
proved that the prophets had, on some 
extraordinary occasions, wrought miracles 
in favour of those whom the Israelites, 
from a fond conceit of their being the pe- 
culiar favourites of Heaven, judged unwor- 
thy of such marks of particular favour. 
The council was so incensed at this reply, 
that, forgetting the sanctity of the sabbath, 
they hurried him through the streets, to the 
brow of the hill whereon their city was built, 
intending to cast him headlong down the 
precipice : but the Son of God defeated 
their cruel intentions, by miraculously 
confounding their sight, and withdrawing 
from the fury of these wretched people. 

CHAP. VI. 

Our Lord proceeds to Capernaum. — Adds to 

the Number of his Followers. — Proclaims 

the 



AND SAVIOUR, 

the Gospel in Galilee. — Preaches, to a 
numerous Audience, his well-known and 
excellent Discourse upon the Mount. 

THE holy Jesus, aggrieved by the 
cruel Nazarenes, departed from them, 
and visited Capernaum, the capital of Ga- 
lilee, (being built on the borders of the 
Lake of Gennesaret) which was a place 
highly convenient for the design ; for, be- 
sides the numerous inhabitants of that city, 
the trading towns on the lake were crowded 
with strangers, who, after hearing the doc- 
trine of the gospel preached by the great 
Redeemer of mankind, would not fail to 
spread, in their respective countries, the 
happy tidings of salvation. 

Though it was expedient that he should 
spend a considerable time in preaching 
and working miracles, to confirm his mis- 
sion, and instruct his disciples in the doc- 
trine they were afterwards to publish to the 
whole world, this could not be done at 
Jerusalem, the residence of the Scribes and 
Pharisees, whose ambition would never 
have suffered so celebrated a teacher as 
Jesus to reside among them ; these conn- 
tries were, therefore, the only places where 
he could, for any time, take up his resi- 
dence, and instruct the people in such a 
manner as to answer the great intention of 
his coming into the world. 

If any should inquire, why he chose 
Capernaum in preference to all the other 
places situated on the Lake of Gennesaret? 
we reply, Because he was certain of being 
favourably received by the inhabitants of 
that city. He had gained the friendship 
of the principal family, by restoring to 
health a favourite child, who, to all human 
appearance, was just sinking into the 
chambers of the grave. Nor was this fa- 
mily the only friends he had in that city ; 
so stupendous a miracle could not fail of 



ESUS CHRIST. 39 

procuring the love and esteem of all the 
relations of that noble family : besides, so 
benevolent and surprising a miracle must 
have greatly conciliated the respect of all 
the inhabitants of Capernaum, who could 
not be ignorant of so remarkable an event. 
And, accordingly, our Saviour spent here, 
and in other places bordering on the lake, 
a great part of the time of his public life ; 
so that the inhabitants of these parts en- 
joyed a considerable share of the blessed 
company, and divine instructions, of the 
Son of God. 

It may not be amiss, in this place, to 
give a short description of this celebrated 
lake, called in the Old Testament, the 
Sea of Chinneroth : but in the New it has 
three different appellations, being called 
the Sea of Galilee, from the province of 
Galilee in general ; the Sea of Tiberias, 
from a city of that name on its western 
shore ; and the Lake of Gennesaret, from 
a particular tract of Galilee, extending a 
considerable way along its western side. 

According to Josephus, it is a hundred 
furlongs in length, and forty in breadth. 
The bottom is of gravel, which renders the 
waters both of a o-ood colour and taste. It 

O 

is softer than either fountain or river water; 
and at the same time, so cold that it will 
not grow warm, though exposed to the 
rays of the sun in the very hottest season of 
the year. The river Jordan runs through 
the midst of it, which stocks it with a 
great variety of fish, of a peculiar form 
and flavour, not found in any other place. 

The countries surrounding this lake 
were large, fertile, and populous, espe- 
cially the two Galilees, which, according 
to Josephus, had a great many towns, and 
a multitude of villages, the least of which 
contained fifteen hundred souls. On the 
cast side were the cities of Chorazin, Beth- 
saida, Gadara, and Hippon; on the west, 

Capernaum, 



40 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Capernaum, Tiberias, and Tarrichea. And, 
from all these advantages, it was a com- 
mon saying among the Jews, that God 
loved the Sea of Galilee above all other 
seas. An observation strictly just, if to 
these we add its greatest advantage, name- 
ly, that this sea, above all others, was 
frequently honoured with the divine pre- 
sence of the great Redeemer of mankind, 
while he dwelt at Capernaum, and even 
once after he arose from the dead. 

While Jesus tarried at Capernaum, he 
usually taught in the synagogues on the 
sabbath-day, preaching with such energy 
of power as greatly astonished the whole 
congregation. He did not, however, con- 
stantly confine himself to that city ; the ad- 
jacent country was often blessed with his 
presence, and cheered with the heavenly 
words of his mouth. 

In one of the neighbouring villages, he 
called Simon and Andrew, who were fol- 
lowing their occupation of fishing on the 
lake, to accompany him. These disciples, 
who had before been acquainted with him, 
readily obeyed the heavenly mandate, and 
followed the Saviour of the world. Soon 
after he saw James and John, who were 
also fishing on the lake, and called them 
also. Nor did they hesitate to follow the 
great Redeemer of mankind, and, from 
their ready compliance, there is reason to 
believe that they, as well as Simon and 
Andrew, were acquainted with Jesus at 
Jordan; unless we suppose, which is far 
from being improbable, that their readi- 
ness proceeded from the secret energy of 
his power upon their minds. But however 
this be, the four disciples accompanied 
our blessed Saviour at Capernaum, and 
soon after to different parts of Galilee. 

How long our Lord was on this journey 
cannot be determined ; all the evangelists 
have mentioned is, that he wrought a great 



number of miracles on diseased persons : 
and that the fame of these wonderful works 
drew people from Galilee, Jerusalem, Ju- 
dea and beyond Jordan. Nor was the 
knowledge of these miracles concealed 
from the heathens, particularly the inhabi- 
tants of Syria ; for they also brought their 
sick to Galilee to be healed by him. Con- 
sequently, the time our blessed Saviour 
spent in these tours must have been con- 
siderable, though the evangelists have said 
very little concerning it. 

But whatever time was spent in these 
benevolent actions, the prodigious multi- 
tudes, which flocked to him from every 
quarter, moved his compassion towards 
those who were bewildered in the dark- 
ness of ignorance, and determined him to 
preach to them the words of eternal life, 

For this blessed purpose, he ascended a 
mountain in that neighbourhood ; and 
placing himself on an eminence, from 
whence he could be heard by throngs of 
people attending him, he inculcated, in 
an amazingly pathetic manner, the most 
important points of religion. But, alas ! 
they were coldly received, because many 
of them were directly opposite to the 
standing precepts delivered by the Scribes 
and Pharisees. Surely these people, who 
had seen the blessed Jesus perform so 
many benevolent actions to the poor, the 
diseased, and the maimed, might have 
entertained a more favourable opinion of 
his doctrine, and known that so compas- 
sionate and powerful a person must have 
been actuated by the Spirit of God, and, 
consequent^, that the doctrine he taught 
was really divine. 

He opened his excellent sermon with the 
doctrine of happiness, a subject which 
the teachers of wisdom have always con- 
sidered as the principal object in morals, 
and employed their utmost abilities to 

convey 



AND SAVIOUR, 

convey a clear idea of it to their disciples, 
but differed very remarkably with regard 
to the particulars in which it consisted. — 
The Jews were, in general, persuaded that 
the enjoyments of sense were the sovereign 
good. Riches, conquest, liberty, mirth, 
fame, revenge, and other things of the 
same kind, afforded them such pleasures, 
that they wished for no better in the Mes- 
siah's kingdom, which the}* all considered 
as a secular one ; and that a golden, instead 
of a sceptre of righteousness, would have 
been the sceptre of his kingdom. Nay, some 
of the disciples themselves retained, for 
a time, the like kind of notion, till they 
were convinced of their mistake, by the 
spirit, word, and conduct, of their divine 
Master. 

Our Lord and Master, therefore, to shew 
his hearers in general, and his disciples in 
particular, the grossness of their error, de- 
clared, that the highest happiness of man 
consisted in the favour and image of God : 
that these will make a man unspeakably 
happy, even in tribulation and persecution. 
In possessing these, the soul has peace 
and joy, and a lively hope of eternal rest ; 
without these, no situation, however plea- 
sant, no wealth, however abundant, no 
station, however exalted, can afford any 
solid or permanent satisfaction of mind. 
He therefore addressed them in the follow- 
ing, or similar manner : You congratulate 
the rich and the great , but happy are the 
poor in spirit, those humble souls, that, 
deeply conscious of their ignorance and 
guilt, can quietlv yield to Divine teachings 
and Divine disposals ; for however thev 
may be despised and trampled on by men, 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You admire 
the gay and jovial part of mankind, and 
please yourselves with the hopes of joy 
and festivity ; but I say unto you, Happy 
are they that now mourn under a penitent 



JESUS CHRIST. 41 

sense of their sins, for they shall ere long 
be comforted with the discoveries of God's 
forgiving love, and be cheered with the 
reviving ravs of his everlasting favour. 

The truth of this heavenly aphorism is 
very evident ; for what has so great a power 
to turn the feet of the sons of men into 
the path of virtue, as sanctified affliction ? 
Has it not a natural tendency to give man- 
kind a distaste of the pleasures of the 
world, and convince them they are nothing 
more than vanity and vexation of spirit; and, 
consequently, to demonstrate that they 
must seek for happiness in things more 
solid and permanent than any in this vale 
of tears ? The Holy Spirit then awakens 
the most serious thoughts in the mind ; 
composes it into a grave and settled frame, 
very different from the levity inspired by 
prosperity ; gives it a fellow-feeling of the 
sorrows of others ; and makes it thoroughl}* 
sensible of the danger of departing from 
God, the source and centre of all its jovs. 

Nor are the passionate happy ; but, on 
the contrary, the meek ; those who have 
by the grace of God subdued their tem- 
pers, can patient^ bear provocation, and 
are strangers to that destructive passion, 
envy. The meek shall inherit the choicest 
blessings of the present life ; for, indeed, 
they principally now from that benevolent 
and heavenly temper of mind. Meekness 
consists in the moderation of our passions, 
which renders a person lovely and vene- 
rable in the eyes of his fellow-mortals; and 
thence he possesses the sincere esteem of 
the upright; while the passionate and envi- 
ous man is considered as despicable, thou gh 
adorned with the robe of honour, and dig- 
nified with the most ample possessions. 
Blessed are the meek ; for they shall inherit the 
earth . 

Men, through vanity and blindness, con- 
sider those as happy who enjoy the plea- 
L sures 



42 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



sures of this life, by rioting in luxury and 
excess. But this is far from being the 
ease ; on the contrary, those are the truly 
happy who have the most vehement desire 
after the salvation of God, and enjoy much 
of his love. For they, by the assistance of 
the Holy Spirit, shall obtain every thing 
they desire ; shall be happy here in the prac- 
tice of righteousness; and, after this transi- 
tory life is ended, shall be received into the 
blissful mansions of the heavenly Canaan. 
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after 
righteousness ; for they shall be filled. 

Forgiveness, not resentment, for injuries 
done, is a real spring of happiness ; and 
those who are of a humane and beneficent 
disposition, rejoice when they can perform 
a benevolent action, especially to their 
fellow-mortals in distress. The merciful 
shall see themselves recompensed even in 
this life : for they shall find, after many 
days, the bread they have cast upon the 
waters of affliction returning ten-fold into 
their bosoms. And surely nothing can 
surpass the pleasure felt by a generous 
mind at having relieved a brother, when 
pressed beneath a load of misfortunes ; the 
pleasure is godlike ; it is divine. Blessed 
are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy. 

Permanent delight is totally inconsist- 
ent with sensuality, which is a subjection 
to the appetite ; it is the portion of those 
who have mortified their carnal appetites, 
to enjoy an inward purity of mind. With 
what delight do we behold the glories of 
the sun, and contemplate the beautiful 
scenes of nature that surround us ! But 
what proportion has this to the ineffable 
delights that must fill the minds of those 
who behold the great Creator himself, who 
called the whole universe from nothing-, 
and still supports it with the word of his 
power? Blessed are the pure in heart: for 
they shall see God. 



The tyrants and conquerors of earth, 
who disturb the peace of mankind, are far 
from being happy ; it falls to the share of 
those who love their fellow-creatures, and 
do all in their power to promote peace 
and harmony among the children of men. 
For they imitate the perfection of their 
Maker, and therefore will be acknowledged 
by him for his children, and participate 
of his happiness. Blessed are the peace- 
makers: for they shall be called the children 
of God. 

Nor does happiness consist in liberty 
and ease, if those privileges are purchased 
at the expense of truth and righteousness. 
Those who have suffered the severest trial 
that human nature is capable of sustaining, 
from purity of heart and for conscience' 
sake, shall be honoured with the highest 
reward in the blissful mansions of eternity. 
Blessed are they which are persecuted for 
righteousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom 
of heaven. 

Contentment is not to be expected from 
the applause of the world ; but will be the 
portion of those who are falsely reviled for 
righteousness' sake, and share in the af- 
fronts offered to God himself, if they 
suffer in a Christian spirit : for by these 
persecutions the prophets of all ages have 
been distinguished. Blessed are ye when 
men shall revile you, and persecute you, and 
shall say all manner of evil against you, false- 
ly, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding 
glad : for great is your reward in heaven, 
for so persecuted they the prophets which were 
before yon, Matt. v. 11, 12. 

These are the declarations, with regard 
to happiness, made by the Son of God: 
and surely we may believe the words of 
him who came down from heaven; and 
who, in compassion to our infirmities, took 
upon himself our nature ; and, to redeem 
us from the power of sin and death, offered 

himself 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



43 



himself a sacrifice on the cross, and thereby 
opened to us the gates of eternal life. 

Having shewn in what true happiness 
consisted, our Saviour addressed himself 
to his disciples, and explained their duty, 
as the teachers appointed to conduct others 
in the paths that lead to eternal felicity ; 
and excited them to diligence in dispensing 
the salutary influences of their doctrine and 
example, that their hearers might honour 
and praise the great Creator of heaven and 
earth, who had been so kind to the children 
of men. 

As his definition of happiness was very 
different from what the Jews were accus- 
tomed to hear from the Scribes and Phari- 
sees, he thought proper to declare, that he 
was not come to destroy the moral precepts 
contained in the law or the prophets, but to 
fulfil or confirm them. 

Nothing is so stedfast as the eternal 
truths of morality : the heavens may pass 
away, and the whole frame of nature be 
dissolved, but the rule of righteousness 
shall remain immutable and immortal. 
And, therefore, he ordered his disciples, 
on the severest penalties, to enforce, both 
by preaching and example, the strict ob- 
servation of all the moral precepts con- 
tained in the sacred writings, and that in 
a much greater latitude than they were 
taken by the teachers of Israel. And, in 
consideration of the frailties of human na- 
ture, taught them that excellent form of 
prayer, which has been used by Christians 
of most denominations to this very day : 

Our Father, §c. 

If earthly parents are called fathers, the 
Almighty has the best title from every 
creature, and particularly from men, being 
the Father of their spirits, the former of 
their bodies, and the continual preserver 
of both. Nor is this all; he is our father 
in a still higher sense, as he regenerates us, 



and stamps his image upon our minds ; so 
that, partaking of his nature, we become 
his children, and therefore we can with a 
holy boldness call him by the title of that 
relation. In the former sense, God is the 
father of all his creatures, whether good 
or bad ; but in the latter, he is the father 
only of the righteous. Father is the most 
magnificent title invented by philosophers 
or poets, in honour of their gods ; it con- 
veys the most lovely idea possible to be 
conceived by the human breast. As it is 
used by mankind in general, it marks the 
essential character of the true God, namely, 
that he is the first cause of all things, or 
the author of their being ; and, at the same 
time, conveys a strong idea of the tender 
love he bears to his creatures, whom he 
nourishes with an affection, and protects 
with a watchfulness, infinitely superior to 
that of an earthly parent. The name of 
father also teaches us, that we owe our 
being to God, points out his goodness and 
mercy in upholding us, and expresses his 
power in giving us the things we ask. Nor 
is this all ; we are likewise taught to give 
our Maker the title of father, that our sense 
of the tender relation in which he stands 
to us may be confirmed ; our faith in his 
power and goodness strengthened ; our 
hopes of obtaining what we ask in prayer 
cherished ; and our desire of obeying and 
imitating him quickened ; for reason aided 
by grace teaches us, that it is disgraceful 
in children to degenerate from their pa- 
rents, and that they cannot commit a 
greater crime than to disobey the com- 
mands of an indulgent father. 

Lastly, we are commanded to call him 
father in the plural number, ( and that 
even in our secret addresses to the throne 
of grace,) to put us in mind that we are all 
brethren, the children of one common 
parent ; and that we ought to love one 

another 



44 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



another with sincerity, as we pray not for 
ourseKes only, but for all the human 

race. 

Which art in heaven. These words do 
not suppose the presence of God to be 
confined ; he is present every where ; is 
about our paths, and about our bed, and 
narrowly inspecteth every action of the 
sons of men. But they express his majesty 
and power, and distinguish him from those 
we call fathers upon earth, and from false 
gods, which are not in heaven, the happy 
mansions of bliss and felicity ; where the 
Almighty, who is essentially present in 
every part of the universe, gives more 
especial manifestations of his presence to 
such of his creatures as he hath exalted to 
share with him in the eternal felicities of 
the heavenly Jerusalem. 

Hallowed be thy name. By the Name of 
God, the Hebrews understood God him- 
self, his attributes, and his works ; and 
therefore the meaning of the petition is, 
May thy existence be universally believed, 
thy presence loved and imitated, thy works 
admired, thy supremacy over all things 
acknowledged, thy providence reverenced 
and confided in ! May all the sons of 
men think so highly of his divine majesty, 
of his attributes, of his works ; and may 
we so express our veneration for God, that 
his glory may be manifested, in every cor- 
ner of the world ! 

Thy kingdom come. Let the kingdom of 
the Messiah be extended to the utmost 
parts of the earth, that all the children of 
men may know his salvation, and become one 
fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ the 
lighteous. 

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

May thy will, O thou great Father of the 
universe, be done in us, that by the light 
of thy glorious gospel, and the aid of thy 
Holy Spirit, we may be enabled to imitate 



the angels of light, by giving as sincere, 
universal, and constant obedience to thy 
divine commands, as those blessed beimu 
do in glory. 

Give us this day our daily bread. Give us 
from time to time, wholesome and proper 
food, that we may be enabled to worship 
thee with cheerfulness and vigour. 

And forgive us oar debts as we forgive our 
debtors. The Almighty, as supreme gover- 
nor of the universe, has a right to support 
his government, by punishing those who 
transgress his laws. The suffering of pu- 
nishment, therefore, is a debt which sinners 
owe to the divine justice ; so that when we 
ask God in prayer to forgive our debts, we 
beg that he would be mercifully pleased to 
remit the punishment of all our sins, par- 
ticularly the pains of hell ; and that laying- 
aside his displeasure, he would receive 
us into favour, and bless us with lite 
eternal. In this petition, therefore, we con- 
fess our sins, and express the sense we have 
of their guilt; namely, that they deserve 
death ; and sure nothing can be more pro- 
per than such a confession in our addresses 
to God ; because humility, and a sense of 
our own unworthiness, when we ask favours 
of the Almighty, whether spiritual or tem- 
poral, have a tendency to give us a proper 
sense of the goodness of God in bestowing 
them upon us. 

The terms of this petition are worthy of 
our notice : Forgive us only as zve forgive. 
We must forgive others, if we hope our- 
selves to be forgiven, and are permitted 
to crave from God such forgiveness only as 
we grant to others ; so that if we do not 
forgive even our enemies, we seriously and 
solemnly implore the Almighty to con- 
demn us to the punishment of eternal 
death. How remarkably careful, there- 
fore, should men be to have their hearts 
purged from all rancour and malice, before 



AND SAVIOUR, 

they venture into the temple of the Al- 
mighty, to offer up their prayers to the 
throne of grace ! 

And lead us not into temptation, but deli- 
ver us from evil. Whenever we are tempted, 
0 Thou that helpest our infirmities, suffer 
us not to enter into temptation, to be over- 
come, or suffer loss thereby ; but make a 
way for us to escape, so that we may be 
more than conquerors, through thy love, 
over sin, and all the consequences of it. 
But deliver its, by some means, from the 
evil ; either by removing the temptation, 
or increasing; our strength to resist it. This 
petition teaches us to preserve a sense of 
our own inability to repel and overcome 
the solicitations of the world, and of the 
necessity there is of our receiving assist- 
ance from above, both to regulate our 
passions and enable us to prosecute a re- 
ligious life. 

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory, for ever and ever. Because 
the government of the universe is thine for 
ever, and thou alone possessest the power 
of creating and upholding all things ; and 
because the glory of thine infinite perfec- 
tions remains eternally with thee ; there- 
fore all men ought to hallow thy name, 
submit themselves to thy government, and 
perform thy will. And in an humble sense 
of their dependence, seek from thee the 
supply of their wants, the pardon of their 
sins, and the kind protection of thy pro- 
vidence. 

This is emphatically called, the Lord's 
Prayer, because delivered by the Son of 
God himself ; and, therefore, we should 
do well to understand it thoroughly, that 
when we enter the temple of the Lord, 
and address him in solemn prayer, we may 
have hopes that he will grant our petitions. 
And, above all, not to harbour in our 
breasts the least envy or malice against any 



JESUS CHRIST. 45 

who may have offended us ; for it is only 
on a supposition that we have forgiven 
others, that we may have the least reason 
to hope for obtaining forgiveness from the 
great Creator. 

The divine Preacher proceeded to con- 
sider the great duty of fasting, in which 
he directed them not to follow the hypo- 
crites, in disfiguring their faces, and in 
clothing themselves in the melancholy 
weeds of sorrow, but to be chiefly soli- 
citous to appear before God as one that 
truly fasteth. Then will the Almighty, 
who constantly surrounds us, and is ac- 
quainted even with the most secret thoughts 
of our hearts, openly bestow upon us the 
blessings which he hath promised to a true 
penitent, whose mortification, contrition, 
and humility, he can discern without the 
external appearances of sorrow and re- 
pentance. It must, however, be remem- 
bered, that our blessed Saviour is here 
speaking of private fasting, and to this 
alone his directions are to be applied ; for 
when we are called upon to mourn over 
public sins or calamities, it ought to be 
performed in the most public manner. 

Heavenly-mindedness was the next thing 
inculcated by the blessed Jesus ; and this 
he recommended with a peculiar earnest- 
ness, because the Jewish doctors were, in 
general, strangers to this grace, in which 
he was desirous his followers should be 
clothed, as being the most excellent 
ornament for a teacher of righteousness. 
— This is strenuously recommended by 
our blessed Saviour, by shewing the de- 
formity of its opposite, covetousness, 
which has only perishable things for its 
object. Lay not up for yourselves treasures 
upon earth, zvhere moth and rust doth corrupt, 
and where thieves break through and steal. 
But lay lip for yourselves treasures in heaven, 
zvhere neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and 

M ' where 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



where thieves do not break through nor steal. 
For where your treasure is, there will your 
heart be also, Matt. vi. 19, 20, 21. 

More solid happiness will accrue from 
depositing your treasures in heaven, than 
in laying them up on earth, where they 
are subject to a thousand disasters ; and 
even, at best, can remain for only a short 
series of years ; whereas, those laid up in 
heaven are permanent, subject to no acci- 
dent, and will lead to a crown of glory 
that fadeth not away, eternal in the heavens. 
Nor let any man be so foolish as to think 
he can place his heart on the happiness 
of a future life, when his treasures are de- 
posited in this vale of misery; for wherever 
are laid up the goods which his soul desir- 
eth, there his heart and affections will also 
remain. If, therefore, you are desirous of 
sharing in the joys of eternity, you must 
lay up your treasures in the mansions of my 
Father's kingdom. 

Lest they should imagine it was possible 
to be both heavenly-minded and covetous 
at the same time, he assured them that this 
was full as absurd as to imagine that a 
person could, at the same time, serve two 
masters of opposite characters. No man 
can serve two masters : for either he will hate 
the one, and love the other; or else he will 
hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye 
cannot serve God and mammon, Matt. vi. 24. 

To strengthen this doctrine, he added 
a few plain and evident instances of the 
power, perfection, and extent, of God's 
providence, in which his tender care for 
the least and weakest of his creatures 
shines with a remarkable lustre ; demon- 
strating the wise and paternal attention of 
the Deity to all the creatures of his hand. 
He desired them to observe the birds of 
the air, the lilies, and even the grass of the 
field : leading his most illiterate hearers to 
form a more elevated and extensive idea 



of the Divine government than the philoso- 
phers had attained ; who, though they al- 
lowed in general that the world was go- 
verned by God, had very confused notions 
of his providence with regard to every in- 
dividual creature and action. He taught 
them, that the almighty Father of the 
whole was the guardian and protector of 
every being in the universe ; that every 
action is subject to his will, and nothing- 
left to the blind determination of chance. 

And if our lives be according to the 
Divine will, we have surely no reason to 
be anxious about the necessaries of life. 
Behold, says the blessed Jesus, the fowls oj 
the air : for they sow not, neither do they 
reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly 
Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better 
than they? Matt. vi. 26. Are not the fowls 
of the air, who have no concern for future 
wants, fed and nourished by the beneficent 
hand of your heavenly Father? and can 
ye think that man shall be destitute of his 
tender care ? And why take ye thought for 
raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how 
they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin. 
And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, 
in all his glory, zms not arrayed like one of 
these, Matt. vi. 28, 29- Consider the lilies 
that so finely adorn the adjacent fields ; 
how beautiful their form ! how lively their 
colours ! how fragrant their scent ! the 
productions of art but faintly imitate 
them. Even Solomon himself, in his 
splendid robes of royalty, was but mean- 
ly adorned in comparison of these. And 
surely, if Omnipotence thus beautifully 
clothe the various productions of the fields, 
whose duration is remarkably transient 
and uncertain, you have not the least rea- 
son to doubt but he will bless your honest 
endeavours, and send you proper cloth- 
ing ; are ye not of infinitely more value 
than they? Be ye solicitous to obtain 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



47 



the happiness of the life to come ; and 
all the (rood things of this life shall in the 
course of divine providence be added unto 
you. 

Our Lord then prohibited all rash and 
uncharitable censure, either with regard to 
the characters of others in general, or their 
actions in particular ; lest, in doing so, 
both God and man resent the injury. If 
you judge charitably, says the meek and 
benevolent Redeemer of the human race, 
and are ready to pity and pardon their 
faults, both your heavenly Father, and 
man, will deal with you after the same 
manner. But if you always put the 
harshest construction on every action, and 
are not touched with the feeling of your 
brother's infirmities, nor shew any mercy 
in the opinions you form of his character 
and actions, no mercy will be shewn you, 
either from Omnipotence, or the sons of 
men. God will inflict on you the punish- 
ments you deserve, and the world will be 
sure to retaliate the injury. Judge not, that 
ye be not judged. For with what judgment 
ye judge, ye shall be judged : and with what 
measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you 
again, Matt. vii. 1, 2. 

The blessed Jesus, in his pious discourse, 
charged them to cultivate an entire re- 
formation in themselves ; a particular ab- 
solutely necessary in those whose office it 
is to reprove and reform their brethren. 
And, surely, nothing can be more prepos- 
terous, than to condemn in others what 
we practise ourselves ; or to set up for re- 
formers of the world, when we ourselves 
are contaminated with the most enormous 
vices. With what countenance can we 
undertake to rebuke others, when we are 
ourselves plunged in the most detestable 
pollutions ? Well might the Redeemer of 
the world say, Tlwu hypocrite, first cast out 
the beam out of thine own eye ; and then slialt 



thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy 
brother's eye, Matt. vii. 4. 

Those are the important points ol 
doctrine recommended by the infallible 
Preacher, as necessary to the teachers oi 
the gospel of peace : but it is not enough 
that they know and practise the several 
branches of their duty ; they ought to 
use every possible means of spreading these 
blessed truths to the ends of the earth, not 
shrinking from any cross or hardship that 
may be in the path of duty, nor shunning 
to declare the whole counsel of God. Tor 
whether men will hear or not, they must 
be faithfully warned by those watchmen 
who are appointed by the Lord to sound 
the gospel trumpet. Yet christian caution 
should be observed by such as fear and 
love the Lord Jesus, in teaching others the 
way of salvation ; they should not cast their 
pearls before swine, should not speak of 
the deep things of God, or of the heights 
of christian experience, before ignorant 
profane sinners, who would despise these 
pearls, and trample them under their feet. 

Lest the disciples should think obe- 
dience to these precepts impracticable, he 
directed them to apply to God for the 
assistance of his Spirit, together with all 
the other blessings necessary to their sal- 
vation ; assuring them, that if they asked 
with earnestness and perseverance, the 
Father of mercies would not fail to answer 
their requests, and give them whatever 
they desired. Adding the noblest precept 
of morality that was ever delivered by any 
teacher, All things ^whatsoever ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye even so to them: 
for this is the lazo and the prophets, Matt, 
vii. 12. How clear a rule of duty is this ! 
and how easy and applicable to practice ! 
Look into your own breast, and do as 
you would be done by, in the same con- 
dition. 

Having 



48 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Having enforced these heavenly pre- 
cepts, he exhorted them to place an hum- 
ble dependence on the assistance of the 
Holy Spirit, to strive to practise the pre- 
cepts of religion, however difficult the 
task might appear. Enter* ye in at the strait 
gate ; for wide is the gate, and broad is the 
way, that leadeth to destruction, and many 
there be which go in thereat. Because strait 
is the gate, and narrow is the way, which lead- 
eth unto life, and few there be that find it, 
Matt. vii. 13, 14. Strait indeed is the 
gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth 
to life. In the way, nothing is to be found 
that suits the flesh, but many things that 
have a tendency to mortify it; poverty, 
fasting, watching, injuries, chastity, so- 
briety. And with regard to the gate, it 
receives none that are puffed up with the 
glory of this life ; none that are elated with 
pride ; none that are indulging in luxury ; 
it does not admit those that love riches, 
or are encumbered with the goods of this 
world. None can pass through it but those 
who renounce all worldly lusts, and are 
resolved to forsake all sin. There is, how- 
ever, no reason for us to despair of enter- 
ing through this heavenly portal : if we 
sincerely endeavour, the assistance of the 
Holy Spirit will be freely given us ; and we 
shall safely pass through the strait gate, and 
pursue our journey with ease along the 
narrow path, till we arrive at the blissful 
mansions of the heavenly Canaan. 

But lest evil-minded men, under the 
mask of piety and religion, should endea- 
vour to draw them from the paths of righ- 
teousness, our blessed Saviour cautioned 
his disciples to beware of such persons, 
and carefully make the strictest scrutiny 
into their lives and doctrines. 

Our Lord closed his sermon with the 
parable of the house built on different 
foundations ; intimating, that the bare 



knowledge, or the simple hearing, of the 
divinest lessons of the truth ever delivered, 
nay, even the belief of these instructions^ 
without the practice of them, is of no man- 
ner of importance. 

When will the happy time come, in which 
professing Christians shall form themselves 
on these important maxims of their great 
Master ! When shall they be known to 
be his disciples, by the candour of their 
sentiments, the equity of their conduct, 
and the beneficence of their actions, as 
well as by the articles of their faith, and 
the forms of their worship ! 

The way of life which our blessed 
Redeemer has marked out for us, in such 
precepts as the above, may indeed to cor- 
rupt nature appear rugged and narrow, and 
the gate strait through which we are to 
pass : but let us encourage ourselves against 
all the difficulties, by considering that 
immortal life and glory to which they 
infallibly lead. Then shall we, doubtless, 
prefer the most painful way of piety and 
virtue, though with yet fewer companions 
than we might reasonably expect, to all 
those flowery and frequented paths of 
vice, which go down to the chambers of 
death. 

CHAP. VII. 

Our blessed Lord cures the Leprosy and 
Palsy. — Casts out a Devil. — Succours the 
Mother-in-law of Peter; and afterwards 
pursues his Journey through the Country of 
Galilee. 

HE great Preacher of Israel, having 
finished his excellent discourse, came 
clown from the mountain, surrounded by 
a multitude of people, who had listened 
with astonishment to the doctrines he de- 
livered, which were soon confirmed by 

divers 




AND SAVIOUR, 

divers miracles. A leper met him in his 
way to Capernaum, and being, doubtless, 
acquainted with the wondrous works he 
had already performed, threw himself, with 
great humility, before the Son of God, using 
this remarkable expression, Lord, if thou 
wilt, thou canst make me clean. 

The species of leprosy common among 
the Jews, and other Eastern nations, was 
equally nauseous and infectious ; but this 
was so far from preventing the blessed 
Jesus from approaching so loathsome an 
object, that it increased his pity : he even 
touched him ; but, instead of being pol- 
luted himself, the leper was instantly 
cleansed, and he departed glorifying God. 

The evangelist adds, that Jesus forbade 
him to tell any person what had been 
done, but repair immediately to the priest, 
and offer the gift commanded by Moses. 

Having performed the cure on the leper, 
our blessed Lord proceeded to Caper- 
naum ; but, as he entered the city, he was 
met by a Roman centurion, who repre- 
sented to him, in the most pathetic manner, 
the deplorable condition of his servant, 
who was grievously afflicted with the palsy. 
The compassionate Redeemer of the world 
listened attentively to his complaint, and 
immediately assured him he would come 
and heal him. The centurion thought 
this too great a condescension to one who 
was not of the seed of Jacob, and there- 
fore told him, that he did not mean he 
should give himself the trouble of going 
to his house, as this was an honour he had 
not the least reason to expect, he being 
confident that his word alone would be 
sufficient ; diseases and devils being as 
much subject to his commands, as his 
soldiers were to him. 

Our Lord was amazed at these words. 
Not that he was ignorant of the centurion's 
faith, or the basis on which it was built ; 



JESUS CHRIST. 49 

he well knew the thoughts of his heart 
long before he uttered his request ; but he 
was filled with admiration at the exalted 
idea the Roman officer had conceived of 
his power; and to make his faith the more 
conspicuous, he gave it the praise it so 
justly deserved. Verily I say unto you, I 
have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 
Matt. viii. 10. 

This centurion, doubtless, relied upon 
the miracle Jesus had before wrought upon 
the nobleman's son ; but the excellency 
and peculiarity of it consisted in applying 
the most grand ideas of the Divine power 
to Jesus, who, according to outward ap- 
pearance, was only one of the sons of men. 

This exalted faith induced the blessed 
Jesus to declare the gracious intentions of 
his almighty Father with regard to the 
Gentiles ; namely, that he would as readily 
accept their faith as that of the Jews, and 
place them with Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; while 
those who boasted of being the offspring 
of these great patriarchs, but fell far short 
of the Heathens in faith, should be ex- 
cluded from the blissful seats of Paradise. 
And I say unto you, that many shall come 
from the east and the west, and shall sit down 
with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the 
kingdom of heaven. But the children of the 
kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: 
there shall be Keeping and gnashing of teeth, 
Matt. viii. 11, 12. 

Having thus addressed the multitude, 
the blessed Jesus turned himself to the cen- 
turion, and said, Go thy nay ; and as thou 
hast believed, so be it done unto thee. Though 
the idea thou hast conceived of my power 
is just, though remarkably great, as a re- 
ward for thy faith I grant the petition thou 
hast asked of me. And, the evangelist 
adds, his servant nas healed in the sefsame 
hour, Matt. viii. 13. 

N On 



50 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



On the succeeding sabbath, our Saviour 
went into the Jewish synagogue, at Caper- 
naum, and taught the people, delivering 
his instructions in so graceful and elegant 
a manner, that they were all astonished : 
and, to increase their admiration, one of 
the congregation, possessed with an un- 
clean spirit, cried out in a terrible manner, 
Let us alone : what have we to do with thee, 
thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to 
destroy as ? I know thee who thou art, the 
Holy One of God, Mark i. 24. 

But the blessed Jesus, who wanted the 
testimony of no such confessors, com- 
manded him to keep silence, and imme- 
diately come out of the man ; which com- 
mand the evil spirit instantly obeyed, to 
the great surprise and astonishment of all 
the spectators. 

The enemies of the gospel have always 
endeavoured to depreciate our Saviour's 
miracles, pretending that no more is meant 
by a person possessed of the devil than that 
he was afflicted with some loathsome dis- 
ease ; and that because sepulchres were 
considered as polluted places, and, there- 
fore, whenever any melancholy person fre- 
quented them, they were said to be possessed 
with unclean spirits. They add, that it will 
be difficult to assign a reason why demons 
were, at this time, more numerous in J udea 
than in any other country. 

To the first of these objections, namely, 
that the demoniacs were in reality nothing 
more than persons afflicted with some 
loathsome disease, we reply, it is evidently 
false ; the evangelist having taken care to 
be very particular on this head. They 
brought unto him (says he) all sick people 
that were taken with clivers diseases and tor- 
ments, and those which were possessed with 
devils, and those which were lunatic, and those 
that had the palsy ; and he healed them, 
Matt. iv. 24. He gave to the apostles power 



against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and 
to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner 
of disease, Matt. x. 1. And, accordingly 
he healed many that were sick of divers dis- 
eases, and cast out many devils, Mark i. 34. 
It is therefore evident, that those said to 
be possessed with unclean spirits were dif- 
ferent from those which had diseases. Let 
us therefore pass to the second objection, 
and see whether we cannot give a satis- 
factory reason why demons were at this 
time more numerous in J udea than in any 
other country. 

That there were evil spirits of this kind, 
is abundantly evident from the holy scrip- 
tures, the sacred penmen having taken 
care to acquaint us with their origin and 
fall, their names and numbers, their go- 
vernment and orders, their malicious de- 
signs and employments, with several other 
particulars. So that no one can doubt of 
the existence of demons, who believes these 
holy oracles to be the word of God. And 
it is equalty evident, both from sacred and 
profane history, that before our Saviour's 
advent great numbers of men were possessed 
with those evil spirits. 

The truth is, these angels of darkness 
had, at this time, taken possession of so 
large a share of the world, that they began 
to rival the Almighty in his worship ; and, 
therefore, one end of the incarnation of 
the Son of God was, that he might destroy 
the works of the Devil. And hence we may 
easily see the reason why Omnipotence 
suffered these apostate spirits to appear so 
frequently in Judea at the time of our Sa- 
viour's ministry, namely, that the Son of 
God might, in a more signal manner, tri- 
umph over all the powers of darkness, and 
convince mankind that he was truly the 
Saviour of the world. 

But to return. The fame of this miracle 
was soon spread over the neighbouring 

country. 



AND SAVIOUR, 

country. He had before healed the sick, 
and done many other wonderful things ; 
but to command with authority the un- 
clean spirits to quit their residence, and 
to see these enemies to mankind readily 
obey his voice, filled men with astonish- 
ment, and abundantly convinced them that 
he was filled with the Spirit of God. 

It has been asked, why the devil, who, 
it is plain from the text, knew our Sa- 
viour to be the Son of God, should put it 
into the heart of Judas to betray him, 
since this was the proper method of ac- 
complishing the redemption of mankind ? 
But the answer to this is obvious and easy. 
The devil, doubtless, knew Jesus to be the 
Messiah ; but he was ignorant of the mys- 
tery of man's redemption. And, there- 
fore, though he was not ignorant of his 
divinity, yet he might be so far infatuated 
as to think, that by destroying his huma- 
nity he should defeat the great design of 
Omnipotence. For however extensive we 
may suppose his intellectual faculties to 
be, yet the wonderful work of man's re- 
demption by the death of Christ, was a 
mystery that no finite understanding could 
comprehend, till God himself was pleased 
to reveal it. 

Having performed this astonishing mi- 
racle in the synagogue, our Lord retired 
to Peter's house, where he found his wife's 
mother sick of a fever ; but on his taking 
her by the hand, she was immediately re- 
stored to her former health, and arose 
from the bed and ministered unto him. 

The evangelist St. Luke, in his account 
of this miraculous cure, tells us, that he 
rebuked the fever, (Luke iv. 39-) to intimate 
his authority over all diseases ; being ana- 
logous to the figurative expressions in 
scripture, which not only represent all in- 
animate creatures as servants to the Al- 
mighty, but diseases, famine, pestilence, 



JESUS CHRIST 51 

and the like, as executioners waiting on 
him to inflict punishment on rebellious 
sinners. Before /dm went the pestilence, and 
binning diseases went forth at his feet. 

The fame of these miracles was soon 
spread through the city; and as soon as 
the sabbath was over, which ended at the 
setting of the sun, the whole city was 
gathered together about Peter's house, and 
with them great numbers of sick persons, 
and those possessed with devils. The sight 
of so many human objects in distress ex- 
cited the pity of this heavenly Physician ; 
so that he immediately healed them all. 
And thus was the prophecy of Isaiah ful- 
filled : Himself took our infirmities.) and bare 
our sicknesses. 

But the vast concourse of people that 
now gathered round him in Capernaum 
began to be troublesome, and he retired 
into a desert, whither the multitude soon 
followed him, and entreated him never to 
depart from them. But as this request 
was inconsistent with the design of his 
mission, he, for the first time, refused their 
request, and preached in the synagogues of 
Galilee, Luke iv. 44. 

CHAP. VIII. 

Jesus confirms his Mission by producing c 
miraculous Draught of Fishes — curing 
the Leprosy a second Time — appeasing 
the boisterous Waves — casting Devils out of 
divers Persons grievously possessed. 

jCfeL"R blessed Lord, having spread his 
doctrine throughout Galilee, return- 
ed to Capernaum, followed by such num- 
bers of people, that he found it necessary 
to step into Peter's ship ; from whence he 
taught the multitude, who stood on the 
shore listening with oreat attention to his 
doctrine. 

Having 



52 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Having concluded his discourse, he 
turned himself to Simon Peter, desiring 
him to launch out further from the shore, 
and let down his net ; on which the dis- 
ciples told him of the unsuccessful pains 
they had taken during the whole night ; 
but added, that he would, in obedience to 
his command, make one trial more. Nor 
had he any cause to repent : for the net 
was no sooner in the lake, than they found 
it so full of large fishes, that it was in dan- 
ger of breaking. 

This success, after such fruitless toil, 
astonished Peter, who, falling down at the 
feet of Jesus, cried out, Depart from me, 
for I am a sinful man, O Lord. He was 
conscious of the many sins he had been 
guilty of, and therefore afraid of being in 
the company of so divine a person, lest 
some offence might have exposed him to 
more than ordinary chastisement. 

But the benevolent Redeemer of man- 
kind removed his fears, by telling him, 
that from thenceforth the employment of 
him and his companions should be far more 
noble ; they should catch men : that is, they 
should turn them from the crooked paths 
of iniquity to the strait road leading to the 
heavenly mansions. 

This miracle was considered by the dis- 
ciples as a plainer manifestation of his 
being the Son of God, than those they 
had seen him perform on the sick in the 
city and neighbourhood of Capernaum. 
It was a received opinion among the Jews, 
that all good men, by prayers, and laying 
their hands on the sick, were able to cure 
certain diseases, and even to cast out 
devils ; but that the creatures inhabiting 
the elements of air or water were subject 
only to the commands of Omnipotence 
himself: consequently, the power shewn 
by our blessed Saviour, on this occasion, 
undeniably proved him to be divine. And, 



accordingly, this demonstration of his 
power rendered these disciples for the fu- 
ture absolutely devoted to his will; and in 
the greatness of their admiration they aban- 
doned every thing, and followed the Saviour 
of the world. 

The disciples being thus attached to 
their divine Master, followed him through 
the cities of Galilee, where, according to 
the usual custom, he preached the gospel 
of the kingdom of God, and confirmed 
the doctrines he delivered with astonishing 
miracles. 

In one of the cities through which he 
passed, he found a man full of leprosy, who 
seeing Jesus, fell on his face, and besought him, 
saying, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me 
clean, Luke v. 12. 

It was the custom in Judea for the priests 
to banish from society those who were af- 
flicted with a contagious leprosy. The dis- 
ease of this person, therefore, was of a less 
pestilential kind, as he was suffered to en- 
joy the conversation of men. His case, 
however, excited the pity of the compas- 
sionate Jesus, who immediately cleansed 
him, ordered him to repair to Jerusalem, 
and, after shewing himself to the priest, 
offer the gifts commanded by Moses ; giving 
him the same admonition he had done to 
others, namely, not to tell any man what he 
had done for him. But the blessing he had 
received was so great and unexpected, that, 
instead of concealing, he published every 
where the oreat things Jesus had done for 
him ; which brought such crowds to the Son 
of God, that he was obliged to retire from 
Capernaum into the wilderness, to refresh 
his body with rest, and his spirit with prayer 
and meditation. 

The generality of commentators sup- 
pose that this leper, and the other men- 
tioned in the foregoing chapter, are one 
and the same person; but this is a mistake. 

The 



AND SAVIOUR, 

The former was cured in the fields, the 
latter in the city. After cleansing the 
first, Jesus went to Capernaum, and healed 
the centurion's servant; but after curing 
the latter he retired into the wilderness, to 
shun the prodigious crowds, which soon 
gathered round him, from the leper's pub- 
lishing every where the miracle Jesus had 
wrought for him. 

If the curious should inquire why our 
blessed Saviour so often commanded the 
people to conceal his miracles ; we answer 
them — his modesty and humility would not 
suffer that his works should have the least 
appearance of ostentation ; nor the Jews to 
have the least pretence for accusing him of 
seeking his own glory. Nor was it proper, 
at this time, to irritate too greatly the 
Scribes and Pharisees. He well knew, that 
in a certain determinate space of time they 
would bring about what had been deter- 
mined by Providence concerning him. In 
the mean time, he was to work the works of 
him that sent him while it was day, (John ix. 4.) 
and to propagate his gospel with the greater 
facility, both among the Jews and Gentiles; 
which could not have been so conveni- 
ently performed, if the greatness of his 
miracles had once provoked the malice and 
envy of his enemies to exert their utmost 
power against him. He likewise knew 
the mad capricious humour of the multi- 
tude, and had reason to apprehend that 
they would come and take him away by force 
to make him a king, John vi. 15. if all his 
miracles had been blazed abroad, before 
he had sufficiently instructed them in the 
spiritual nature of his kingdom, and that 
his throne was not to be established in 
the earthly, but in the heavenly, Jeru- 
salem. 

From these instances, we see that the 
blessed Jesus did not, without sufficient 
reason, desire his miracles to be concealed. 



JESUS CHRIST. 53 

The fame of this single miracle, being 
spread through the neighbouring coun- 
tries, brought such multitudes of people to 
Capernaum, that, as we have already ob- 
served, he was obliged to retire into a soli- 
tary part of the neighbouring wilderness. 
Nor could he long enjoy the repose of the 
tranquillity he sought, even in this thirsty 
waste ; the people soon discovered the place 
of his retreat, and flocked to him from every 
quarter. 

Our blessed Lord, finding all his endea- 
vours to conceal himself in the desert 
would be in vain, ordered his disciples to 
accompany him to the other side of the 
lake : upon which a certain Scribe, who 
happened to be present, declared he 
would follow him ; but Jesus, who well 
knew that his desire was only to gain the 
profits and advantages of an earthly king- 
dom, which he supposed the Messiah would 
establish, told him, if he intended nothing- 
more by following him than to improve 
his worldly wealth, he would find himself 
wretchedly mistaken. The foxes have holes, 
saith the blessed Jesus to this teacher of 
Israel, and the birds of the air have nests ; but 
the Son of man hath not where to lay Jus head, 
Matt. viii. 20. 

The title So?i of man, is a name by 
which the Messiah is called in the pro- 
phecy concerning him, recorded by the 
prophet Daniel, (vii. 13.) where his uni- 
versal dominion is described ; and there- 
fore, when applied to our great Redeemer, 
denotes his human nature, and, at the 
same time, conveys an idea of that glorious 
kingdom over which he was in this nature 
to preside. But as it was also the name 
by which the old prophets were called, 
from the contempt in which they were 
held up by their countrymen, it is used on 
several occasions to express the deep hu- 
miliation of the Son of God. 

O r I he 



54 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



The disciples having prepared the ship, 
took on board their Master, and departed 
for the other side of the lake, attended by 
many boats full of people, who were de- 
sirous of hearing his heavenly discourses, 
and of being spectators of his astonishing- 
works. But Jesus, being fatigued with the 
labours of the clay, set himself down at the 
stern of the ship, and fell asleep. 

The weather, which had till now been 
calm and serene, suddenly changed. A 
terrible storm came on, and the rising 
waves dashed impetuously against the 
ship, threatening every moment to bury 
them all in the bowels of the deep. The 
darkness of the night increased the horrors 
of the tempest. Now they were carried 
on the top of the mountainous wave, and 
seemed to touch the skies ; then plunged 
to the bottom of the deep, while the foam- 
ing billows roared horribly above them. 
In vain the disciples exerted their utmost 
strength ; the storm continued to increase, 
and baffled all the efforts of human 
strength. The waves broke over the ship, 
the waters rushed in, and she began to 
sink. All hopes of escaping were vanish- 
ed; despair seized every individual; and 
they were on the brink of perishing, when 
they ran to Jesus, crying out, Master, 
Master, we perish ! Their vehement cries 
roused him from his sleep. He raised his 
hand, so often employed in acts of mercy 
and benevolence, and with a stern and 
awful voice rebuked the boisterous ele- 
ment. The raging sea instantly obeyed 
his command. The aerial torrent stopped 
short in its impetuous course, and became 
silent as the grave, while the mountainous 
waves sunk at once into their beds, and 
the surface of the deep became as smooth 
as polished marble. 

The disciples had before seen their great 
Master perform many miracles ; and there- 



fore had abundant reason to rely wholly 
on his power and goodness. They should 
have considered, that he who could, by his 
word, restore the sick, and bring the inha- 
bitants of the sea to their nets, could with 
the same ease have supported them on the 
surface of the deep, had the ship sunk be- 
neath them, and carried them safe to the 
place whither they were going. But they 
seemed to have forgotten the power of their 
Master ; and when human assistance fail- 
ed, to have abandoned all hopes of life. 
The blessed Jesus, therefore, very justly 
rebuked them : Why are ye fearful, O ye 
of little faith ? Why should ye doubt of 
my power to protect you ? The voyage 
was undertaken at my command, and 
therefore you should have been confident 
that I would not suffer you to perish in it. 

It is indeed strange that the disciples 
should have been so remarkably terrified 
during the storm, and after it to make this 
remarkable reflection : What manner of 
man is this, that even the winds and the sea 
obey him! Matt. viii. 27- 

But it should be remembered, that the 
terror of the storm had deprived them of 
all presence of mind ; so that they did not 
recollect the divine power of their Master, 
during the fury of the tempest ; and the 
transition from a terrible storm, to the 
most perfect calm, was so quick and as- 
tonishing, that they probably uttered this 
reflection before the confusion in their 
minds was over. 

Soon after the storm was allayed, they 
arrived in the country of Gadara: and, on 
their landing, two men possessed with 
devils, came from the tombs to meet Jesus. 
One of them, who was more furious than 
the other, had been often bound with 
chains and fetters, but to no purpose, 
being always broken with great fury ; so 
that no man attempted further to restrain 

him. 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST: 



55 



him Being therefore at liberty, he shun- 
ned the society of men, wandering day 
and night in desert places among the se- 
pulchres or caverns where the dead were 
deposited, crying and making the most 
dismal complaints, and cutting himself 
with stones. 

The disciples were terrified at the ap- 
proach of these furious mortals ; but Jesus 
soon dissipated their fears, commanding, 
while the men were at a distance, the de- 
vils to come out of them. The heavenly 
mandate was no sooner given, than they 
fell on their faces, crying out, What have I 
to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most 
high God? Mark v. 7. Art thou come 
hither to torment as before the time? Matt, 
viii. 29- I adjure thee, by God, that thou 
torment me not! Mark v. 7. The apostate 
spirits well knew the power of the Son of 
God, and trembled lest he should imme- 
diately cast them into the torments pre- 
pared for them, and not suffer them to 
continue roving through the earth till the 
day of judgment, when they should be con- 
demned to eternal punishment in the sight 
of the whole creation. 

Jesus, being willing that the torments 
suffered by these miserable men should 
be known before he healed them, asked 
one of the devils his name ; who answered, 
Legion, for we are many, (Mark v. 9-) 
begging, at the same time, that he would 
not command them to repair into the 
deep, or bottomless pit, but suffer them 
to enter a herd of swine feeding at a dis- 
tance. 

How subtle are the wiles of the devil ! 
The power of the Son of God he knew 
was not to be resisted ; but he could not 
help envying the benevolent miracles he 
had wrought for the sons of men ; and was 
therefore willing to prevent, as much as 
possible, their good effects on the miserable 



people of this country. This was the true 
reason why he begged leave to enter the 
herd of swine ; he knew, if he could obtain 
that permission, he could destroy them ; 
and this he hoped would render our blessed 
Saviour odious to the wicked inhabitants 
of Gadara. 

Though Jesus well knew his crafty de- 
sign, yet he permitted the devils to enter 
the swine, that his disciples, and others 
who were with him, might be fully con- 
vinced these unhappy persons were really 
possessed by apostate spirits ; and at the 
same time give them a terrible instance of 
their power, when free from all restraint. 

The divine permission was no sooner 
granted, than the spectators beheld, at a 
distance, the torments these poor crea- 
tures suffered ; with what amazing rapi- 
dity they ran to the confines of the lake, 
leaped from the precipices into the sea, 
and perished in the waters. While the per- 
sons, who a moment before were raving 
and cutting themselves in the most shock- 
ing manner, became at once meek and 
composed, having recovered entirely the 
exercise of their reason. 

The keepers of the herd, terrified at this 
astonishing miracle, ran into the city, pub- 
lishing in every part the cure of the men 
possessed w r ith the devils, and the destruc- 
tion of the swine. 

This surprising report threw the in- 
habitants into the greatest consternation : 
they left the city to be the spectators of so 
wonderful an event ; but when they saw 
the men who had been possessed, sitting 
at the feet of Jesus, decently clothed, and 
in their right minds, their fear was in- 
creased. Tor knowing they had trespass- 
ed in keeping the swine, which was con- 
trary to the law of Moses, they dreaded a 
more severe punishment ; and being igno- 
rant of the goodness of Jesus, though he 



56 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



had given them so remarkable a proof of 
it in the cure of these wretched mortals, 
they besought him that he would leave 
their country. 

There prevailed a custom among the 
Heathens, when any illustrious hero had 
delivered his country from its enemies, or 
from any other great evil, to erect lofty 
columns to his memory ; his statue was 
seen in every place ; altars blazed to his 
glory ; they honoured him with the high 
appellation of Saviour ; and thought no- 
thing, not even divine honours, too great 
to confer upon him. But when Christ had 
removed a monster from the Gaclarenes, 
more formidable and fearful than any in 
heathen history, even a legion of devils, 
and rendered the way, by which no man 
could pass before, secure from danger ; 
instead of being received by them as a 
Saviour, and as a God, with the acclama- 
tions and hosannas of the people, lie was 
besought to depart out of their coasts. 
Stupid people ! they had, indeed, lost their 
herd of swine: but surely the valuable gift 
they had received, in two of their country- 
men and fellow-creatures being delivered 
from the tyranny of Satan, was better than 
the cattle on a thousand hills, and merited, 
at least, their thanks and acknowledg- 
ments. 

The stupid request of the Gadarenes 
was, however, complied with by the bless- 
ed Jesus, who, entering the ship, returned 
to the country from whence he came, leav- 
ing them a valuable pledge of his love, 
and us a noble pattern of perseverance in 
well-doing, even when our kindnesses are 
condemned, or requited with injuries. He 
would not suffer the persons dispossessed 
to accompany him, though they earnestly 
requested it ; but ordered them to stay in 
their own country, as a standing monu- 
ment both of his power and goodness. Go 



home to thy friends, said the compassionate 
Jesus to one of them, and tell them how 
great things the Lord hath done for thee, and 
hath had compassion on thee, Mark v. 19- 

From this remarkable story, we must 
surely see the most apparent reason to 
adore the good providence of God, which 
restrains the malignant spirits of hell from 
spreading those desolations, among beasts 
and men, which would otherwise quickly 
turn the earth into a wilderness, or rather 
into a chaos. But what matter of joy to 
reflect, that all their fury is under a divine 
control, and that they cannot hurt even 
the meanest animal without permission 
from above ! 

We see here a legion of devils trembling 
before the Son of God, confessing his su- 
perior power, howling as it were in their 
chains, and entreating the delay of their 
torments. And can human pride stand be- 
fore him, and rebellious mortals triumph 
over him ? Happy souls that are listed 
under his banners! they shall share the 
victories of the great Captain of their salva- 
tion, and the God of peace shall bruise Satan 
under their feet shortly. 

But O how wretched were these Ga- 
darenes, who preferred their swine to their 
souls, and besought him to depart out of their 
coast, who was their defence and their glory! 
May divine grace preserve us from a 
temper like theirs ! And may those of us, 
who have ourselves experienced the re- 
storing power of Christ and his gospel, be 
engaged to adhere to our great Benefactor, 
and gratefully to devote those powers to his 
service, which he has rescued from dis- 
honour, mischief, and ruin ! 

We cannot but remark in this place, 
that we have here a fuller display of the 
tyranny and power of the devil than in 
any other part of scripture ; and, there- 
fore, we may oppose it to the loose scoffs, 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



57 



and recommend it to the serious attention, 
of those infidels and thoughtless sinners, 
who, like the Pharisees and Sadducees of 
old, when exhorted to abandon their evil 
courses, from a consideration of the power 
of Satan, and the dread of eternal tor- 
ments, made a mock of both, esteeming 
them nothing more than religious fables, 
calculated to keep an ignorant world in 
awe. But with regard to themselves, they 
vainly think their minds too well furnished 
with wisdom, and their discernment too 
penetrating, to believe any thing of the 
flames of the bottomless pit, and the ma- 
lice of the prince who sways the sceptre of 
that horrid place; esteeming him a more 
mild and generous governor than he is re- 
presented in this miracle. But could they 
be persuaded to attend seriously to the mi- 
serable spectacle drawn by the evangelists 
of a wretched mortal, naked, dwelling in 
tombs, crying out day and night, cutting 
himself with stones, furious, fierce, destruc- 
tive ; surely their scoffs and idle mockeries 
would be changed into compassion, and a 
watchful care of themselves. This cer- 
tainly common prudence would dictate. 
But if they will deride, and still disbelieve, 
a short space of time, perhaps a single 
moment, will convince them of their fatal 
error ; and dreadful experience force them 
to acknowledge the greatness of the tyran- 
ny, the bitterness and malice, of this prince 
of darkness against the souls of men. 

May that blindness of mind, and ob- 
duracy of heart, be removed, that so they 
may know and acknowledge the salvation 
of God, even Jesus, who is the way, the 
truth, and the life ! 

CHAP. IX. 

Our Lord proceeds in Acts of Mercy and 
Benevolence. — Adds Matthew to the num- 
ber of his Disciples. — Casts out an evil 



Spirit. — Passes again through Galilee. — 
Selects Twelve from among his Disciples, 
as his constant Followers and Companions, 
and addresses the Multitude in an excel- 
lent Discourse. 
HE arrival of our Saviour and his dis- 
ciples at Capernaum, a city of Galilee, 
was no sooner published, than such throngs 
of people were gathered together, that the 
house could not contain them, nor even 
the court before it. He, however, preach- 
ed the words of eternal life to the listening 
audience, among whom were many Phari- 
sees and doctors of the law, who, from the 
fame of his miracles, were come from all 
quarters to hear him. 

He not only addressed them in the most 
nervous and pathetic manner, in order to 
inculcate the doctrines he delivered ; but 
also performed such astonishing miracles 
as ought to have removed all their scruples 
with regard to the truth of his mission. 

Among other instances he gave of his 
divine power, was that of restoring a man 
to perfect health, who had long been 
afflicted with the palsy, and was reduced 
by that terrible disease to the most melan- 
choly condition, being unable to move any 
member of his body, but seemed rather 
an emaciated carcase than a man. This 
miserable object was brought in his bed 
by four persons, w T ho being unable to enter 
by the door, on account of the multitude, 
carried him to the top of the house, which, 
like the other roofs in that country, was 
flat, and had a battlement round, accord- 
ing to the direction given by Moses, 
Deut. xxii. 8. 

On these roofs there was a kind of trap- 
door, by which they came out of the 
houses upon the roofs, where they spent a 
considerable part of the day. It was also 
common to have a Might of stairs from the 
garden to the roof; and by these the per- 
P sons 




38 



THE LIFE OE OUR BLESSED LOUD 



sons seemed to have carried the sick of 
the palsy; but finding the door fastened, 
forced it open, and uncovered the roof, and 
through the opening let down, by ropes, 
the sick of the palsy, lying on his bed, 
into the midst of the company, before 
Jesus ; who, seeing the faith of the friends 
of this afflicted person, had compassion 
on him, and spake aloud, Son, be of good 
cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee. 

The Scribes taking offence at this saying, 
cried out, This man speaketh blasphemy ; 
for he appropriates that to himself, which 
is solely the province of Omnipotence. 
Who can forgive sins but God only ? They 
were ignorant that the person who uttered 
such gracious words was the Son of God ; 
and, consequently, had the power of for- 
giving the sins of the human race. 

But our Lord, who had recourse to the 
most secret recesses of the heart, and was 
'willing to shew them that he was really 
endued with the Spirit of God, said to 
them, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? 
For whether is easier to say to the sick of the 
palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee ; or to say, 
Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk ? These 
were questions beyond the abilities of the 
haughty Scribes to answer, and, therefore, 
they held their peace. The blessed Jesus 
then added, that the miracle he was going 
to perform would sufficiently demonstrate 
that he had not usurped what did not, in 
the strictest manner, belong to him. And 
turning himself from those bigoted teachers 
of Israel, towards the sick of the palsy, he 
said unto him, Arise, take up thy bed, and 
go unto thine own house, Matt. ix. 6. 

Nor was this divine mandate an} r sooner 
given, than the man was restored to his for- 
mer health and strength ; and, to the asto- 
nishment of all present, rose, took up his 
bed, and departed to his own house, glori- 
fying God. And all the people, when they 



saw this great work, expressed the highest 
degree of surprise, mixed with admiration, 
for the great honour the Almighty had con- 
ferred on human nature. They glorified 
God, who had given such power unto men. 

But with regard to the Scribes and Pha- 
risees, though they must have been con- 
founded at this miracle, yet they still 
continued in their unbelief ; an instance 
which should awaken in us the most seri- 
ous thoughts, as it abundantly demon- 
strates, that the malady of the soul is a 
much more deplorable disease than the 
palsy of the body. 

The blessed Jesus having; wrought this 
miracle, repaired to the sea-side, and 
taught a multitude of people. What the 
subject of his sermon was, the evangelists 
have not told us ; but it was doubtless, 
like the rest, calculated to promote the 
eternal welfare of mankind. 

His discourse being ended, he returned 
to the city ; and in his way saw Matthew, 
or Levi, the son of Alpheus, a rich pub- 
lican, sitting in his office, where the cus- 
toms were levied, at the port of Caper- 
naum, whom he ordered to follow him. 
Matthew immediately obeyed the sum- 
mons, and followed the Saviour of the 
world, to pursue a far more honourable 
and important employment, being after- 
wards both an apostle and evangelist. 

Some little time after his call, he made 
a splendid entertainment for his Master, 
inviting all the publicans he knew ; hoping, 
that by hearing the heavenly conversation 
of Christ, they might also repent, and em- 
brace the doctrines of the gospel. 

The self-righteous Scribes and Phari- 
sees, who considered all men as sinners 
except themselves, especially the publi- 
cans, were highly offended that one who 
called himself a prophet, should so far de- 
mean himself, as to be seen in the com- 
pany 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



59 



pany of such men ; and asked his disciples, 
with an air of insolence, in the hearing of 
all the guests, how their Master could sit 
down at the same table with publicans and 
sinners ? 

Our Lord replied to this artful question, 
that the sick only had need of a physician, 
and desired them to reflect seriously on the 
prophet Hosea's declaration ; / will have 
mercy, and not sacrifice. The turning sin- 
ners into the paths of righteousness, which 
is the highest act of benevolence, is far 
more acceptable to the Almighty, than all 
the ceremonies of the law of Moses, so 
highly magnified by your fraternity ; who, 
on many occasions, observe them at the 
expense of charity : adding, I am not come 
to call the righteous, as you arrogantly ima- 
gine yourselves to be, but sinners, to repent- 
ance. The chief object of my attention is 
the conversion of sinners. 

This answer, however satisfactory to an 
unprejudiced person, was far from being so 
to the Scribes and Pharisees, who, joining 
with some of Johi/s disciples then present, 
returned to Matthew's house, and demand- 
ed of Jesus, why his disciples wholly neg- 
lected to fast, a duty often performed both 
by the rulers of Israel and the disciples of 
John ? To this the blessed Jesus replied, 
It is not a proper season for the friends of 
the bridegroom to fast and afflict them- 
selves, while they enjoy his company ; but 
the days will come, when the bridegroom shall 
be taken away from them, and then shall they 
fast. The various calamities and afflictions 
that shall attend them, after the departure 
of their Master, shall cause them to fast, 
which they shall repeat as often as the 
circumstances of distress and danger, with 
which they will be surrounded, shall re- 
quire. And added, that to have obliged 
his disciples to observe the precepts of fre- 
quent abstinence, at a time when he was 



employing them to preach the gospel, by 
which all the legal ceremonies of the law 
were to be abolished, would have been as 
absurd as to sew a piece of new cloth 
upon a rotten garment, which would only 
make the rent the worse ; or to put new 
wine into old leathern bottles, which, on 
the first fermentation of the liquor, would 
burst. Indicating, that infant virtue must 
not immediately be put to the greatest 
trials, lest it be destroyed by the severity 
of the exercise. 

During this controversy between our 
Lord and the haughty Scribes and Phari- 
sees in Matthew's house, Jairus, a ruler of 
the synagogue, came running to him, in 
all the agonies of grief ; and, in the pre- 
sence of the whole company, fell on the 
ground before him, beseeching that he 
would come and heal his daughter, who 
lay at the point of death. 

When did the beneficent Jesus deny 
his gracious assistance to those who im- 

O 

plored it of him ? He immediately arose, 
and followed the ruler towards his house, 
surrounded by a great multitude of peo- 
ple, who were desirous of seeing so great 
a miracle. 

But as he passed through the streets, a 
woman, who had for twelve years been 
afflicted with an issue or flux of blood, 
and had spent her whole substance on phy- 
sicians to no purpose, came behind him, and 
touched the hem of his garment : for site said 
zmthin herself, If I may but touch his clothes 
I shall be well. Nor was she deceived ; for 
no sooner had she touched the border of 
the garment of the Son of God, than her 
issue of blood dried up ; and she felt, by the 
return of her health and strength, and 
other agreeable sensations that accompany 
such sudden changes from painful diseases 
to perfect health, that the cure was abso- 
lutely complete. 

But 



00 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



But this transaction could not be con- 
cealed : the blessed Jesus knew the whole, 
and her secret thoughts, before she put 
them in practice ; and, pleased with the 
opinion this woman had entertained both 
of his power and goodness, would not by 
any means suffer it to pass unapplauded. 
Accordingly, he turned himself about, and 
asked, Who touched me ? He well knew the 
person ; but asked this question for the 
fuller manifestation of the woman's faith, 
and that he might have an opportunity of 
instructing and comforting her. 

His disciples being ignorant of what 
had passed, were surprised at the question: 
Thou seest, said they to their Master, the 
multitude thronging and pressing thee, and 
say est thou, Who touched me? They did not 
distinguish between the spiritual and cor- 
poreal touch, nor knew that such effica- 
cious virtue had gone out of their Master. 
Jesus, however, persisted in knowing who 
it was that had done the thing ; and the 
woman, finding it in vain to conceal her 
action any longer, came to him trembling, 
and told him all. Perhaps the unclean- 
ness of her distemper was the reason of her 
fear, thinking he would be offended, even 
at her touching the hem of his garment. 
But the divine Physician, far from being 
ang^, spake to her in the kindest manner, 
and commended her faith, on which ac- 
count he had consented to heal her plague: 
Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath 
made thee whole, Matt. ix. 22. 

Such a miraculous incident must, doubt- 
less, have greatly strengthened the ruler's 
faith ; for, behold, a virtue, little inferior 
to that of raising the dead, issues from the 
border of Christ's garment, and heals a 
disease, which, for the space of twelve 
years, had baffled all the prescripts of the 
healing art, and defied the power of me- 
dicine. Indeed, the faith of this ruler had 



great need of the strongest confirmation, 
for news was brought him, that his daughter 
was even now dead, and therefore it was 
needless for him to give any further trouble 
to Jesus ; not in the least suspecting that 
he had power to recall the departed spirit, 
and to reanimate a breathless carcase. 

This message was a terrible blow to the 
affectionate parent. His only daughter, 
who in a few days before was in the bloom 
of youth, was now a pale and lifeless 
corpse ; and with her all his joys and 
comforts were fled. But Jesus, commise- 
rating his grief, desired him to be com- 
forted, promising that his daughter should 
be restored. 

On his coming to the ruler's house, he 
found it full of mourners, who made ter- 
rible lamentations ; a sufficient demon- 
stration that the damsel was really dead. 
And accordingly, when our blessed Sa- 
viour desired the mourners to cease their 
funeral ceremonies, as the maid was not 
dead, but sleeping, they laughed him to 
scorn. 

It is necessary to remark, in this place, 
that the Jews, when they spoke of a pious 
person's death, styled it sleep, to intimate 
their belief that his spirit existed in the 
happy scenes of paradise, and their hopes 
of a future resurrection to life eternal. But 
the blessed Jesus used the word with re- 
markable propriety, to signify that though 
she was now locked in the cold embraces 
of death, yet he was going to release her 
from the power of the king of terrors, with 
the same ease as a person is awaked from 
sleep. Thus our blessed Saviour, in the 
very manner of performing a miracle 
modestly declined the honour that would 
undoubtedly result from a work so greatly 
superior to all the powers of men. 

Having thus briefly addressed the 
mourners, he entered the chamber where 

the 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



61 



the damsel was lying, but suffered none 
to follow him, except Peter, James, and 
John, together with the father and mo- 
ther of the damsel. Probably his reason 
for suffering these only to be spectators of 
so stupendous a work, was, that they might 
have an opportunity of examining the whole 
transaction in the most careful manner, and 
be thence enabled, afterwards to report it 
upon the fullest conviction, and with every 
circumstance of credibility. 

The blessed Jesus now approached the 
body, took her by the hand, and, with a 
gentle voice, said, Maid, arise. The hea- 
venly command was instantly obeyed ; the 
damsel arose, as from a sleep, and with all 
the appearance of health and vigour; for 
Jesus commanded to give her something 
to eat ; a plain proof that she did not ap- 
pear in the weak and languishing condition 
of a person worn out with disease, or even 
like one who had fainted away ; a circum- 
stance that abundantly proves the greatness 
and perfection of the miracle. It is, there- 
fore, no wonder that her parents should be 
astonished at so stupendous a work, the 
fame of which was soon spread through all 
the neighbouring country; though Jesus, 
who was in every sense above praise, and 
therefore never courted it, had strictly char- 
ged them that they should tell no man what 
was done. 

These instances of power did the blessed 
Jesus display, to convince the world, that 
those who die in him are not dead; and 
that he hath the keys of life and death. 
Those also of the present age, who believe 
that the soul sleeps with the body till the 
resurrection, would do well to consider the 
expression of the evangelist, Her spirit came 
again, Luke vii. 55; which sufficiently 
shews that the soul exists separately, when 
the body is laid in the chambers of the 
grave. 



Having performed this benevolent mira- 
cle, our blessed Saviour left the ruler's house, 
and was followed through the streets by two 
blind men, imploring assistance ; nor did 
they implore in vain. The Redeemer of 
mankind was, and still is, always ready to 
grant the petitions of those who apply to 
him for relief. Accordingly, he was no 
sooner entered into the house, to avoid the 
thronging of the multitude, than he touched 
their eyes, and said, According to your faith 
be it unto you, Matt. ix. 29 ; and immedi- 
ately the invaluable gift of sight was be- 
stowed upon them. 

The blind men were so overbed at be- 
holding the light, that though our Saviour 
charged them to keep the miracle a secret, 
they published his fame in every part of the 
country, being unwilling to conceal what, 
in gratitude for so great a mercy, they 
thought themselves obliged to divulge. 

The men, who had thus miraculously 
received their sight, being departed, the 
multitude brought to him a dumb man 
possessed with a devil. So moving a sight 
could not fail of attracting a compassionate 
regard from the Saviour of the world, who, 
being never weary of well-doing, imme- 
diately cast out the apostate spirit ; on 
which the dumb man recovered the use of 
his speech, and spoke in a very rational 
manner to the multitude, who with one 
voice declared, that such wondrous works 
were never wrought by any of the old 
prophets : It was never so seen in Israel, 
Matt. ix. 33. This reflection was perfectly 
just ; for no one of the prophets that we 
read of in the Old Testament, appears to 
have wrought so many beneficial miracles 
in his whole life, as our Lord did in this 
one afternoon. 

These works did not remove the preju- 
dices of the Pharisees, who being unable 
to deny the miracle, insinuated that he did 

Q it 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



it by a power received from Beelzebub, 
the prince of the devils. A poor pretence 
indeed ! and did not escape the animad- 
version it deserved from the Saviour of 
the world, as we shall see in a succeeding 
chapter. Well might the prophet Isaiah 
cry out in a prophetic ecstasy, Who hath 
believed our report ? and to whom is the arm 
of the Lord revealed? 

But all their calumnies could not pro- 
voke the meek and merciful Jesus to cease 
from performing these compassionate offi- 
ces for the children of men. On the con- 
trary, he exerted himself still more and 
more to promote the prosperity and salva- 
tion of the whole human race. Accord- 
ingly, he left Capernaum, and travelled 
through the country in search of miserable 
objects, on whom he might confer hap- 
piness and peace : visiting all the cities and 
villages, teaching in their synagogues, and 
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and 
healing every sickness, and every disease, among 
the people, Matt. ix. 35. 

In his return from this tour to Caper- 
naum, he was attended by a great number 
of people, who expressed a more than com- 
mon desire to hear the doctrine of the gospel. 
An incident abundantly sufficient to engage 
the attention of this divine teacher, who was 
ever careful to cultivate the smallest seeds 
of virtue, and cherish the least appearance 
of piety and religion. 

It was not this desire of the people alone 
that excited his compassion towards them : 
he well knew they were wholly destitute 
of spiritual teachers ; for the Scribes and 
Pharisees, who ougfnt to have instructed 
them, were blind, perverse, and lazy 
guides, who, instead of seeking the glory 
of the Almighty, made it their whole bu- 
siness to support and augment their own. 
They magnified the ritual ceremonies and 
traditions, but took no care to inspire the 



people with a love of truth and holiness. 

To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly 
with their God, were no parts of their doc- 
trine. The small appearance of religion 
they entertained was wholly hypocritical ; 
and the disputes carried on with so much 
bitterness, between the factions of the 
Pharisees and Sadducees, distracted the 
minds of the people. 

The inhabitants of Judea were truly in 
a deplorable state, which called loudly for 
the compassion of the Son of God, who 
always regarded the descendants of Jacob 
with the most tender affection. Pie saw 
the sheep of Israel scattered on the barren 
wastes of error and superstition, without 
a shepherd to lead them to the heavenly 
pastures of the law and the prophets. He 
saw, he commiserated their distress ; and 
resolved to provide some remedy for it. 
Accordingly, he directed his apostles to 
intercede with the Almighty, who by his 
servants the prophets had sown the seeds 
of piety and virtue in the minds of the 
Jews, that he would not suffer the rich 
harvest to be lost for want of labourers. 
The harvest, said the blessed Jesus to his 
disciples, truly is plenteous, but the labourers 
are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Tord of the 
harvest, that he will send forth labourers into 
his harvest, Matt. ix. 37, 38. 

To these gracious acts he added the 
most powerful of all intercessions to the 
throne of grace, his own prevailing prayer ; 
and, accordingly, ascended to the top of 
the mountain, and there spent the night 
in making the most powerful petitions in 
behalf of the lost shiep of Israel, to his 
heavenly Father. 

Plaving spent the night in this pious 
exercise, he lost no time in putting his 
beneficent intentions in execution ; for no 
sooner had darkness withdrawn her sable 
veil, and the blushing rays of the morning 

adorned 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



63 



adorned the chambers of the east, than 
the benevolent Redeemer of mankind 
called his disciples to him, and chose 
twelve, whom he named apostles, to be with 
him ; and that he might send them forth to 
preach. He ordered them to be with him, 
that they might learn from his ow r n mouth 
the doctrine they were to preach to the 
whole world ; that they might see his glory, 
the transcendent glory of the virtues which 
adorned his human life ; and that they 
mioht be witnesses of all the wondrous 
works he should perform during his resi- 
dence in this vale of misery, and by which 
his mission from the court of heaven was to 
be fully demonstrated. 

These tw r elve persons, thus qualified, 
were to supply the people with that spiri- 
tual food they so greatly wanted, both while 
their Master continued here below and after 
his ascension to the right hand of Power. 

Having ordained them to their respect- 
ive offices, he sent them out by two and 
two, into the most distant parts of Judea, 
to preach the glad tidings of the gospel, 
and prepare the way for their Master, the 
great Shepherd of Israel. And that no- 
thing might be wanting to render their 
preaching acceptable to the people, and 
confirm the important doctrines they de- 
livered, he invested them with full power 
to cure all diseases, cast out devils, and 
even to raise the dead. 

Perhaps the number of the twelve 
apostles was fixed upon, rather than any 
other, to shew that God intended, by their 
ministry, to gather together the scattered 
remnant of the twelve tribes of Israel. 
But be that as it may, these twelve apostles 
constantly continued with him from the 
time of their election, till he offered him- 
self a sacrifice on the cross for the sins of 
mankind, never departing from him, un- 
less by his own appointment. 



All these persons being illiterate Ga- 
lileans, and at first destitute of the quali- 
fications necessary to the discharge of their 
duty, integrity alone excepted, were the 
most unlikely persons in the world to con- 
found the wisdom of the wise, baffle the 
power of the mighty, overturn the many 
false religions which then flourished every 
where, under the protection of the civil 
government; and, in short, to reform the 
manners of mankind, then universally 
corrupted. 

Had the choice of instruments for so 
grand an undertaking been committed to 
human prudence, such, doubtless, would 
have been chosen, as were remarkable for 
learning, strong reasoning, and prevailing 
eloquence. But, behold, the wisdom of 
God, infinitely superior to that of man, 
acted very differently ; for the treasure of 
the gospel was committed to earthen vessels, 
that the excellency of its power might in all 
countries appear to be of God. 

Accordingly, the religion which these 
illiterate Galileans taught through the 
world, exhibited a far juster notion of 
things than the Grecian and Roman philo- 
sophers were able to attain, though their 
lives were spent in study and contempla- 
tion. Hence by its own intrinsic splen- 
dour, as well as by the external glory of 
the miracles that accompanied it, this re- 
ligion sufficiently appeared to be wholly 
original and divine. 

Besides, its truth and dignity were suf- 
ficiently attested by the remarkable success 
that attended it. It was received every 
where by the bulk of mankind with the 
highest applause, as something they had 
hitherto been seeking in vain ; while the 
maxims and precepts of the philosophers 
seldom spread farther than their respective 
schools. 

It was, therefore, with the highest wis- 
dom 



! 



64 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



dom that the foundations of the church 
were laid in the labours of a few illiterate 
fishermen ; for it demonstrated, with irre- 
sistible evidence, that the immense fabric 
was at first raised, and is still sustained 
not by the arm of flesh, but purely by the 
hand of the Almighty. 

After appointing the twelve apostles, he 
came down from the mountain, and was 
joyfully received by the multitudes of peo- 
ple who were waiting for him in the plain, 
and pressed to touch him ; well knowing, 
that if they could only touch the border of 
his garment, they should be healed of what- 
ever distemper they were afflicted with. 
A sufficient reason why they were continu- 
ally waiting for him, and were willing to 
accompany him, even to the remotest cor- 
ners of the wilderness. 

The preaching and the miracles of our 
Lord were attended to, not by the low 
and vulgar only, but persons of the first 
rank and character came from distant 
parts of the country to converse with him, 
hear his doctrine, and be spectators of his 
wonderful works. It therefore evidently 
appears, that persons of all ranks were de- 
sirous of following him ; and their desire 
could be founded on nothing but the truth 
of his doctrines and miracles. 

After healing; all the sick among; the 
multitude, he turned towards his disciples, 
and delivered a divine discourse, some- 
thing like that he had before preached to 
them on the mountain : but in the former 
he only pronounced blessings, whereas, in 
the latter, he added curses also ; and in 
this principally it differs from that recorded 
by St. Matthew. I shall therefore only 
select a few passages, from the sermon now 
delivered, as I have given a larger para- 
phrase on the former. 

Woe unto you that are rich ! for ye have 
received your consolation, Luke vi. 24. 



Riches, considered in themselves, by no 
means render us the objects of the Al- 
mighty's hatred, unless accompanied with 
those vices which too often flow from an 
opulent fortune ; as luxury, covetousness, 
and the like. The woe, therefore, is here 
denounced against such only as are con- 
taminated with these vices; for those who 
make a proper use of their wealth, and 
possess the virtues which should accom- 
pany affluence, have no share in the ma- 
lediction. 

Woe unto you that are full ! for ye shall 
hunger. The pain ye shall suffer in a fu- 
ture life shall be sharp and excruciating. 
The Opportunities you have neglected of 
doing good to your afflicted brethren in 
this life, shall then be remembered with 
the most poignant grief, and bewailed with 
the most bitter lamentations. 

Woe unto you that laugh now ! for ye shall 
mourn and weep. This malediction of our 
blessed Saviour is not inconsistent with the 
apostle's precept, which commands Chris- 
tians always to rejoice. Neither is the 
mirth, against which this woe is here de- 
nounced, to be understood of that constant 
cheerfulness of temper which arises in the 
breast of true Christians, from the comfort- 
able and cheerful doctrine with which they 
are enlightened by the gospel, the assur- 
ance they have of reconciliation with God, 
and hope they have of everlasting life, and 
the pleasures they enjoy in the practice of 
the duties of religion ; but it relates to that 
turbulent carnal mirth, that excessive le- 
vity and vanity of spirit, which arises not 
from any solid foundation, but from seri- 
sual pleasures, or those vain amusements 
of life in which the giddy and the gay 
contrive to spend their time ; that sort of 
mirth which dissipates thought, leaves no 
time for consideration, and gives them an 
utter aversion to all serious reflection. 

Persons 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



65 



Persons who constantly indulge them- 
selves in this kind of mirth, shall weep 
and mourn eternally, when they are ex- 
cluded from the joys of heaven, and ba- 
nished for ever from the presence of God, 
by the light of whose countenance all the 
righteous are enlivened, and made tran- 
scendently happy. 

Woe unto you when all men shall speak well 
of you ! for so did their fathers to the false 
prophets. Woe unto you, if by propagating 
such doctrines as encourage men in sin, 
you shall gain in yourselves the applause 
and flattery of the generality of men; for 
thus in old times did the false prophets and 
deceivers, who, accommodating their doc- 
trines to the lusts and passions of men, 
gained their applause, but incurred the 
wrath and displeasure of a just and all- 
seeing God. 

Our Lord here represents those as mise- 
rable who are rich and full, joyous and ap- 
plauded ; not that this is universally the 
case, but because prosperous circumstan- 
ces are so frequently a sweet poison, and 
affliction a healing though bitter medicine. 
Let the thought reconcile us to adversity, 
and awaken our caution when the world 
smiles upon us ; when a plentiful table is 
spread before us, and our cup runneth over; 
w r hen our spirits are gay and sprightly ; or 
when we hear, what to corrupt nature is 
too harmonious music, that of our own praise 
from men. Oh that we may secure, what 
is of infinitely greater importance, the praise 
of our heavenly Master, by a constant regard 
to these his precepts ! 

CHAP. X. 

Continuation of our Lord's glorious Doctrines, 
beneficent Acts, and astonishing Miracles, 
wrought in Confirmation of the Divinity of 
his Mission, and the extending his heavenly 
Kingdom. 



PTpHE divine Preacher having closed 
this excellent sermon, he repaired to 
Capernaum, and w r as met by certain mes- 
sengers from a Centurion, desiring him to 
come and heal a servant, who was dear to 
him, and ready to die. 

This Centurion, from the account given 
of him by the Evangelists, seems to have 
been a proselyte to the Jewish religion, as 
he was a lover of the sons of Jacob, and 
had erected for them a place of worship ; 
and accordingly the inhabitants of Caper- 
naum strongly espoused his cause on this 
occasion, saying, That he was worth/ for 
whom he should do this. For he loveth our 
nation, and he hath built us a synagogue, 
Luke vii. 4, 5. 

There w r as not the least danger that this 
petition would be rejected by the blessed 
Jesus, who sought all occasions of doing 
good to the children of men. Accordingly, 
he very readily accompanied the messen- 
gers : but before he came to the house, 
he was met by some of the Centurion's 
friends, who expressed the high idea that 
officer entertained of his power, and de- 
sired that he w r ould not take the trouble 
of coming to his house, as a word was 
abundantly sufficient to perform the cure 
At this message, Jesus turned himself 
about, and said to the multitude, / say unto 
you, I have not found so gi*eat faith, no, not 
in Israel, Luke vii. 9- 

The persons having delivered their mes- 
sage, returned to the house, and found 
the servant who had been sick, perfectly 
recovered. 

Behold an instance of faith in a stranger 
to the commonwealth of Israel, by which their 
unbelief w<as condemned ! Oh that the 
virtues of heathens may not another day 
rise up to our condemnation, notwithstand- 
ing a higher profession and much nobler 
advantages ! We cannot but rejoice to hear 

R that 



66 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



that many shall come from the east and the 
west, to sit down with the pious patriarchs in 
the kingdom of heaven : but how deplora- 
ble is the case of those children of the 
kingdom, who, with all their towering 
expectations, shall be cast out, and doomed 
to hopeless sorrow, and everlasting dark- 
ness ! 

Having thus miraculously healed the 
Centurion's servant, he repaired to Peter's 
house to eat bread ; but the multitude 
came again together, and surrounded the 
house in a very tumultuous manner, de- 
manding, in all probability, that he would 
heal their sick ; and it was not without 
difficulty they were dispersed by his 
friends. 

The multitude being dispersed, Jesus 
called unto him the twelve apostles lie 
had before chosen, and conferred on them 
the power of working miracles, in con- 
firmation of the doctrines they were ap- 
pointed to preach, and delivered them such 
instructions as he thought necessary to 
enable them to discharge the duties of this 
important commission.. 

Go, said their heavenly Master, and preach, 
saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 
Publish in every corner of Judea the glad 
tidings of the gospel, and the near approach 
of the great Messiah's kingdom : not a tem- 
poral, but a spiritual empire, consisting of 
righteousness and peace. 

To inure them to those hardships and 
dangers which were to attend them in 
their preaching, after the death of their 
Master, our Lord forbade them to provide 
any thing for their journey ; teaching 
them to rely wholly on the providence of 
God for support in every distress, and to 
have recourse to his protection in every 
danger. 

Our Lord's disciples had, perhaps, flat- 
tered themselves with the pleasing expec- 



tation, that the glad tidings they were going 
to publish, and the miraculous cures they 
svere enabled to perform, would procure 
them an honourable reception wherever 
they came. Their Master, however, told 
them the event would not in any manner 
answer their expectations ; but that they 
were every where to be despised, perse- 
cuted, delivered into the hands of the 
rulers, and punished as wicked men. 
But, at the same time, he promised them 
the aid of the Almighty, and gave them 
instructions for their behaviour in every 
particular. He added, that those who 
rejected their message should be treated 
with severity by the great Judge of all 
the earth ; but those who received them 
kindly, and gave even a cup of cold water 
to the least of his disciples, for their Mas- 
ter's sake, should not fail of receiving a 
large reward. 

Having received this commission, the 
apostles visited all the parts of Palestine, 
where the Jews inhabited, preaching the 
doctrine of repentance, working miracles 
for its confirmation, and, particularly, 
healing the sick, while our blessed Savi- 
our continued the course of his ministry in 
Galilee. 

The apostles being returned from their 
tour, Jesus went to Nain, a town situated 
near Endor, about two miles south of 
Mount Tabor, attended by many of his 
disciples, and a great multitude of people. 

On their coming to the entrance of the 
city, a melancholy scene presented itself 
to the eyes of Jesus and his followers. 
Behold, there was a dead man carried out, 
the only son of his mother, and she was a 
widow, Luke vii. 12. Who would not have 
imagined, that God had indeed forgotten 
to be gracious, and in his anger shut up his 
tender mercies from this poor widow, suf- 
fering under the heaviest load, and labour- 



AND SAVIOUR, 

ing under the most oppressive burden of 
distress ? Deprived of her son, her only 
son, in the flower of his youth, when he 
might have repaid his mother's toils, and 
been to her in the place of a husband ; of 
that husband she had long since lost, and 
whose loss was supportable only through 
the comfort of this child, the surviving 
image of his departed father, the balm of 
all her grief, the hope of her afflicted soul ; 
who now shall administer consolation to 
this solitary widow, to this lonely parent, 
bereaved of her husband, deprived of her 
child ? What misery can be more com- 
plicated? What can be more natural than 
that she should refuse to be comforted, that 
she should go down to the grave mourning, 
and visit the chambers of death, the resi- 
dence of the beloved remains of her hus- 
band and her son, with sorrow? 

Toward the receptacle of mortality, that 
dreary waste of forgetfulness, the mourn- 
ful funeral was now, with slow and solemn 
pomp, advancing, when the compassionate 
Redeemer of mankind met the melancholy 
procession, composed of a long train of 
her weeping neighbours and relations, who 
pitied her distress, sympathized with her 
in this great affliction, and were melted 
with compassion at her deplorable circum- 
stances : but sighs and tears were all they 
had to offer ; relief could not be expected 
from a human being ; their commiseration, 
though grateful to her oppressed soul, could 
neither restore the husband nor the son : 
submission and patience w r ere the only 
lessons they could preach, or this afflicted 
daughter of Israel learn. 

But though man was unable to relieve 
the distress of this disconsolate widow, 
the Saviour of the world, who beheld the 
melancholy procession, was both able and 
willing to do it. There was no need of a 
powerful solicitor to implore assistance 



JESUS CHRIST. 67 

from the Son of God, his own compassion 
was abundantly sufficient. When the Lord 
saw her, he had compassion on her: he both 
sought the patient, and offered the cure 
unexpectedly. Weep not, said the blessed 
Jesus to this afflicted woman. Alas! it 
had been wholly in vain to bid her refrain 
from tears, who had lost her only child, 
the sole comfort of her age, without ad- 
ministering the balm of comfort to heal 
her broken spirit. This our compassionate 
Redeemer well knew; and, therefore, im- 
mediately advancing towards the corpse, 
he touched the bier: the pomp of the fu- 
neral was^instantly stopped, silence closed 
every mouth, and expectation filled the 
breast of every spectator. But this deep 
suspense did not long continue ; that glo- 
rious voice, which shall one day call our 
dead bodies from the grave, filled their 
ears with the remarkable words, Young 
man, I say unto thee, arise. Nor was this 
powerful command uttered without its 
effect. He spake, and it was done : he 
called with authority, and immediately 
he that was dead sat up, and began to speak ; 
and he restored him to his mother. He did 
not shew him around to the multitude: 
but, by a singular act of modesty and hu- 
manity, delivered him to his late afflicted, 
now astonished and rejoicing, mother; to 
intimate, that in compassion to her great 
distress he had wrought this stupendous 
miracle. 

A holy and awful fear fell on all who 
heard and saw this astonishing event : and 
they glorijied God, saying, that a great pro- 
phet is risen up amongst us; and, that God 
hath visited his people. 

Here it must be observed, that as this 
miracle is liable to no objection, it there- 
fore abundantly proves, that the power of 
the blessed Jesus was truly and absolutely 
divine. He met this funeral procession 

apparently 



68 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



apparently by accident. It was composed 
of the greatest part of the inhabitants of 
the city, who bewailed the disconsolate 
state of the afflicted widow, and therefore 
well knew that the youth was really dead. 
The powerful word, which called the breath- 
less body to life, was delivered in an audi- 
ble voice, before all the company, and even 
at the very gate of the city, the place of 
public resort. 

This miracle, with others amply attest- 
ed, abundantly evinces the truth of our 
Saviour's divine mission, and that he was 
indeed the Son of God, the Redeemer of 
mankind. 

CHAP. XI. 

The Character of John the Baptist cleared 
and justified by the blessed Jesus. — He vi- 
sits Simon the Pharisee. — Display of our 
Lord's Humility and Condescension. 

E have taken notice, in a foregoing 
chapter, that Herod, incensed at the 
honest freedom of the Baptist in reproving 
his adulterous commerce with Herodias, 
his brother Philip's wife, had cast him into 
prison ; and in this state he still continued, 
though his disciples were suffered to visit 
and converse with him. In one of these 
visits they had given him an account of 
our Saviour's having elected twelve apos- 
tles to preach the gospel, and of his mira- 
cles, particularly of his raising to life the 
daughter of Jairus, and the son of the 
widow of Nain. 

On hearing these wonderful relations, 
the Baptist immediately dispatched two 
of his disciples to Jesus, to ask him this 
important question, Art thou he that should 
come, or look we for another? 

Accordingly the disciples of John came 
to Jesus, and proposed the question of their 



Master at the very time when he cured 
many of their infirmities and plagues, and of 
evil spirits, and to many that were blind he 
gave sight. Jesus therefore, instead of 
directly answering their question, bade 
them return and inform their master what 
they had seen : Go, (said he,) and shew John 
again those things which ye do hear and see : 
the blind receive their sight, and the lame 
walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf 
hear ; the dead are raised up, and the poor 
have the gospel preached to them, Matt. xi. 
4, 5. Go, tell your Master, that the very 
miracles the prophet Isaiah so long since 
foretold should be wrought by the Messiah, 
ye yourselves have seen performed. 

It appears from the scripture, that the 
Baptist, through the whole course of his 
ministry, had borne constant and ample 
testimony to our Saviour's divine mission , 
that he exhorted those who came to him, 
to rest their faith not on himself, but on 
him that should come after him; and that as 
soon as he was acquainted who Jesus was, 
by a visible descent of the Holy Ghost, and 
a voice from heaven, he made it his busi- 
ness to dispose the Jews in general, and his 
own disciples in particular, to receive and 
reverence him, by testifying every where, 
that he was the Son of God, the Lamb of 
God, who came down from heaven, and spake 
the words of God, and to whom God had given 
the Spirit not by measure. 

The Baptist, therefore, well knew who 
Jesus was ; and, consequently, he did not 
send his disciples to ask this question, to 
solve any doubt in his mind concerning 
the Saviour of the world. 

But it may be asked, what else could 
induce the Baptist to put such a question ? 
To this some answer, that he had no other 
intention than to satisfy his disciples that 
Jesus was the Messiah, so long expected 
among the Jews ; and to engage them to 

follow 




AND SAVIOUR, 

follow a more perfect master, especially as 
he himself was now on the point of leaving 
the world. 

This solution is doubtless partly right ; 
but to some it does not remove the whole 
difficulty, as they think it is plain, from 
the very account recorded by the evange- 
list, that the question had actually some 
relation to himself ; and therefore they 
remove the difficulty by another method. 
In order to which, they say, it must be re- 
membered, that John had been long con- 
fined in prison ; that he was persuaded it 
was necessary for him to preach the gospel, 
and prepare men to receive the kingdom 
of the Messiah ; and for that reason, from 
the very time of his imprisonment, he ear- 
nestly expected the Messiah would exert 
his power to procure his release. But on 
hearing that Jesus had chosen twelve illi- 
terate fishermen to preach the gospel, had 
furnished them with miraculous powers, 
in order to enable them to perform so great 
a work, and that two persons of no conse- 
quence were raised from the dead, while 
he was suffered to remain in prison, he 
began to think himself neglected, and his 
services disregarded. He therefore sent 
two of his disciples, to ask him this ques- 
tion, Art thou he that should come ; or look 
we for another ? Not that he entertained 
any doubt of his being the true Messiah ; 
intending nothing more, by asking the 
question, but to complain that Jesus had 
not acted the part which he thought the 
Messiah should have acted ; and that this 
was really the case, it is thought, is suffi- 
ciently plain, from the caution added by our 
blessed Saviour himself ; And blessed is he 
whosoever shall not be offended in me : as if he 
had said, When you have informed your 
master of what you have seen and heard, 
tell him that he would do well not to be 
offended, either at the choice of the apos- 



JESUS CHRIST. 69 

ties, or that no miracle has been wrought 
for his release. 

From this circumstance some think it is 
evident, that impatience on account of his 
Ions; confinement was the true reason for 
the Baptist's sending his disciples with this 
question to Jesus ; and that the purport of 
the answer was, to teach him submission, in 
a case that was plainly above the reach of 
his judgment. 

Lest the people, from this conversation, 
should imbibe any notion prejudicial to 
the character of the Baptist, our blessed 
Saviour thought fit to place it in a proper 
point of light. He praised his invincible 
courage and constancy, which was not to 
be overcome, or like a reed to be shaken 
with the wind; his austere and mortified 
life, for he w r as not clothed in soft raiment, 
like those who wait in the palaces of kings ; 
adding, that he was a prophet, nay, more 
than a prophet. Far this is he of whom it 
was written, Behold, I send my messenger 
before thy face, which shall prepare thy way 
before thee. But subjoined, Notwithstajid- 
ing, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is 
greater than he. 

The propriety of this remark will ap- 
pear when it is considered, that though 
the Baptist excelled all the prophets that 
were before him, j T et the least inspired 
person in the kingdom of heaven, the least 
apostle or preacher of the gospel, was 
greater than he ; because,- by constantly 
attending on Jesus, they were much better 
acquainted with his character, disposition, 
and doctrine, than the Baptist, who had 
only seen him transiently : wherefore, in 
respect of their personal knowledge of the 
Messiah, the apostles greatly excelled the 
Baptist. They were also employed, not 
in making preparation for the Messiah's 
kingdom, but in erecting it; and conse- 
quently greater than the Baptist, with re- 

S gard 



70 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



gard to the dignity of their office. More- 
over, by having the gift of miracles, and 
the like, conferred on them, for that office, 
they were far superior to him with regard 
to illumination. They were so fully pos- 
sessed by the Spirit, that on all occasions 
they could declare the will of God infal- 
libly, being, as it were, living oracles : and 
having been the subjects of ancient pro- 
phecies, they had been long expected by 
the people of God. 

Having thus shewn the greatness of the 
Baptist's character, and wherein he was 
surpassed by the disciples, our blessed Sa- 
viour took occasion from thence to blame 
the perverseness of the age, in rejecting 
both his own and the Baptist's testimony. 

It seems that the Scribes and Phari- 
sees, seeing their pretended mortifications 
eclipsed by the real austerity of the Baptist, 
impudently affirmed, that his living in the 
deserts, his shunning the company of men, 
the coarseness of his clothing, the abste- 
miousness of his diet, and the other seve- 
rities he practised, were the effects of his 
being possessed by an apostate spirit, or 
of religious melancholy. For John came 
neither eating nor drinking ; and they say, he 
hath a devil, Matt. xi. 18. 

On the other hand, they would not lis- 
ten to the heavenly doctrines preached by 
Christ, because he did not separate him- 
self from society ; attributing his free man- 
ner of living to a certain looseness of dis- 
position, though they well knew that he 
observed the strictest temperance himself, 
and never encouraged the vices of others, 
either by dissimulation or example. The 
Son of man came eating and drinking, and 
they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a 
wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners ; 
but Wisdom is justified of her children, 
Matt. xi. 19- 

He next proceeded to upbraid the seve- 



ral cities where his most wonderful works 
had been performed. For though they 
had heard him preach many awakening 
sermons, and seen him perform such 
astonishing miracles, such as would have 
converted Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom, cities 
infamous for their impiety, contempt of 
religion, pride, luxury, and debauchery ; 
yet so great was their obstinacy, that they 
persisted in their wickedness, notwith- 
standing all he had done to convert them 
from the evil of their ways. Woe unto thee, 
Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for if 
the mighty works which were done in you 
had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would 
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 
But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable 
for Tyre and Sidon, at the day of judgment, 
than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which 
art exalted, unto heaven, shalt be brought 
down to hell ; for if the mighty works which 
have been done in thee had been done in 
Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. 
But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable 
for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgment, 
than for thee. 

Having denounced these judgments on 
the cities which had neglected to profit 
by his mighty works, he concluded his 
discourse with these heavenly words i Come 
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my 
yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest 
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my 
burden is light, Matt. xi. 28, &c. 

This affecting invitation must engage 
the most serious attention and particular 
regard of every reader ; if the greatness 
of the speaker, the importance of his mes- 
sage, or the affectionate manner of his 
address, have any weight, have any force, 
have any power, to affect the soul. It is 
Christ ? the Almighty Redeemer, the Son 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



71 



of the Most High ; he into whose hands, 
as our Mediator, all things are delivered 
of his Father ; he unto whom all power in 
heaven and earth is given ; even he who 
shall come in the clouds of heaven to judge 
all the inhabitants of the earth, and even 
by those words he hath himself delivered : 
it is this wonderful Person who speaks, 
declaring at once his great willingness to 
receive sinners, and his supreme power to 
give that rest and peace to the soul, which 
should be the pursuit of every son of Adam, 
and is the gift of his religion only. 

And that nothing may prevent our ac- 
cepting this benevolent offer, he invites, 
with the most affectionate tenderness, not 
the great, the happy, and the powerful, 
not the merry-hearted, or the sons of joy; 
but all that labour and are heavy laden, all 
that are under bondage to sin and sor- 
row : and those he calls, not with a desire 
to expose their miseries, to punish their 
offences, or to display his own glory ; but 
solely with a view to render them happy. 
Come, says he, come to me, I entreat you to 
come, I will give you rest ; I myself will 
relieve and release you from your heavy 
burdens; come to me, and you shall find 
perfect rest and peace to your souls. Take 
my yoke upon you, for it is easy; and my bur- 
den, for it is light. 

Is it possible that creatures of a day, like 
us ; can it be possible, " that mortals, who 
have but a short time to live, and are full 
of misery; who come up and are cut clown 
like a flower ; who flee as it were like a 
shadow, and never continue in one stay 
can it be possible, that they should reject 
and disregard a call, so full of love, so full 
of affection, of such infinite consequence, of 
such unspeakable advantage ? Can they 
reject the love of him who gave them rest, 
took their burdens upon himself ; and who, 
after all his sufferings, desires them only 



to come, to exchange their own oppressive 
burdens for his lightsome yoke ; to aban- 
don their sins and sorrows, and become his 
disciples; to love and obey him, and thence 
to be happy? Can we possibly despise 
such grace, refuse such offers, fly from such 
rest, thus freely proposed to us, and prefer 
the heavy yoke of sin, and the cruel pangs 
of a wounded conscience ? 

Having concluded this public address, 
one of the Pharisees (named Simon) de- 
sired he would eat with him : the blessed 
Jesus accepted the invitation, accom- 
panied him to his house, and sat down to 
meat. 

He had not continued long at the table, 
before a woman, who had lately left the 
paths of vice for those of virtue, placed 
herself behind him, and, from a deep con- 
viction of her former crimes, and the obli- 
gation she owed to the Saviour of mankind 
for bringing her to a sense of them, shed 
such quantities of tears, that they trickled 
down on his feet, which, according to the 
custom of the country, were then bare. 
But observing that her tears had wet the 
feet of her beloved Instructor, she imme- 
diately wiped them with the hairs of her 
head, kissed them with the most ardent 
affection, and anointed them with precious 
ointment she had brought with her for that 
purpose. 

It was a custom among the inhabitants 
of the East, to pour fragrant oils on the 
heads of such guests as they intended par- 
ticularly to honour, while they sat at meat ; 
and probably the woman's original inten- 
tion was to anoint Jesus in the usual man- 
ner. But being exceedingly humbled on 
account of her former crimes, she could 
not presume to take that freedom with 
him, and therefore poured it on his feet, 
to express at once the greatness of her 
love, and the profoundness of her humility. 



72 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



The Pharisee, who had attentively ob- 
served the woman, concluded from thence 
that our Saviour could not be a prophet. 
This man, (said the Pharisee to himself,) if 
he were a prophet, would have known who and 
what manner of woman this is that toucheth 
him; for she is a sinner, Luke vii. 39- 

But though Simon spoke this only in 
his heart, his thoughts were not concealed 
from the great Redeemer of mankind, 
who, to convince them that he was a pro- 
phet, and that he knew not only the cha- 
racters of men, but even the secret thoughts 
of their hearts, immediately conversed 
with him on the very subject he had been re- 
volving in his mind. He did not, indeed, 
expose him before the company, by relat- 
ing what he had said in secret ; but, with 
remarkable delicacy, pointed out to Simon 
alone the unreasonableness of his thoughts. 
Simon, (said the blessed Jesus,) I have some- 
what to say to thee. There was a certain 
creditor, who had two debtors; the one owed 
tfve hundred pence, and the other fifty. And 
when they had nothing to pay, he f rankly for- 
gave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of 
them will love him most ? Simon answer- 
ed and said, I suppose that he to whom he 
forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou 
hast rightly judged. And then immedi- 
ately he applied this short parable to the 
subject of the woman, on which the Pha- 
risee na d so unjustly reasoned with him- 
self : Simon, (continued our Saviour,) 
seest thou this woman ? I entered into thine 
house, thou gavest me no water for my 
feet; but she hath washed my feet with 
tears, and wiped them with the hairs of 
her head. Thou gavest me no hiss : but this 
woman, since the time I came in, hath not 
ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou 
didst not anoint : but this woman hath anoint- 
ed my feet with ointment, Luke vii. 44, 
&c. 



This woman's kind services were in no 
danger of losing their reward from the 
blessed Jesus, who possessed the softer and 
finer feelings of human nature in their 
utmost perfection. Accordingly he added, 
in pursuance of the kind invitation he had 
before made to weary and heavy-laden sin- 
ners, Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins which 
are many, are forgiven ; for she loved much : 
but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth 
little, Luke vii. 47- 

The blessed Jesus having thus com- 
mended the conduct of the woman to the 
company, and rebuked, with great deli- 
cacy, the unjust suspicions of Simon, 
turned himself to the woman, and, in the 
kindest manner, assured her, that her sins 
were forgiven. But the power he assumed 
in forgiving sins, greatly offended the Jews, 
who, not being acquainted with his divi- 
nity, considered his speech as derogatory 
to the honour of the Almighty. Jesus, 
however, contemned their malicious mur- 
murs, and repeated his assurance, telling 
the woman, that her faith had saved her, 
and bade her depart in peace. 

The next day Jesus travelled from Ca- 
pernaum to different parts of Galilee, going 
through every village, preaching, and shewing 
the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, 
Luke viii. 1. That is, he declared to the 
people the welcome tidings of the Al- 
mighty's being willing to be reconciled to 
the children of men, on condition of their 
repentance, and embracing the gospel of 
the grace of God. 

Leaving Galilee, he repaired to Jeru- 
salem, to keep the passover, being the 
second feast of that kind since his public 
ministry. In this journey he was accom- 
panied by certain pious women, who mi- 
nistered to him of their substance. 

CHAP. 



AND SAVIOUR, 
CHAP. XII. 

Miraculous Cure ejected at the Pool of Be- 
thesda. — Reproof of the Superstition of the 
Jews, in condemning the Performance of 
necessary Worhs on the Sabbath Day. — 
After doing many Acts of Mercy and Won- 
der, our blessed Lord is visited by his Mother 
and his Brethren, and makes a spiritual Re- 
fection on that Incident. 

^feUR Lord had no sooner entered the 
ancient city of Jerusalem, so long fa- 
mous for being the dwelling-place of the 
Most High, than he repaired to the public 
bath or pool, called in the Hebrew tongue, 
Bethesda, that is, The House of Mercy, on 
account of the miracles wrought there, by 
the salutary effects of the water, at certain 
seasons. This bath was surrounded by five 
porches, or cloisters, in which those who 
frequented the place were sheltered both 
from the heat and cold ; and were particu- 
larly serviceable to the diseased and infirm, 
who crowded thither to find relief in their 
afflictions. 

These porches were now filled with a 
great multitude of impotent folks, of blind, 
halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the 
water. For an angel went down at a certain 
season into the pool, and troubled the water : 
whosoever then first, after the troubling of the 
water, stepped in, was made whole of what- 
soever disease he had, John v. 3, 4. 

Such is the account of this miraculous 
pool, given us by St. John the evangelist. 
Many controversies have arisen concern- 
ing the place, the time, and the nature, of 
the pool ; questions which will, perhaps, 
never be answered, because the pool of 
Bethesda is not mentioned by any of the 
Jewish historians. 

The time when this miraculous effect 
took place is not precisely determined; but 
it is almost universally agreed, that it could 



JESUS CHRIST. 73 

not be long before the coming of our Savi- 
our ; and that the miracle was intended to 
lead us to the Son of God. For the gift 
of prophecy and of miracles had ceased 
among the Jews for above four hundred 
years ; and, therefore, to raise in them a 
more ardent desire for the coming of the 
Messiah, and to induce them to be more 
circumspect in observing the signs of bis 
coming, God was pleased to favour them 
with this remarkable sign at Bethesda. 
And as the descendants of Jacob, in the 
last times, were not only very obnoxious 
to the irruptions and tyranny of the Gen- 
tiles, but had wholly lost their liberty ; so 
God favoured them with this eminent token 
of his favour, this wonderful pool, that they 
might not despair of the promises made to 
their forefathers being fulfilled. 

The pool was situated near the Gate of 
Victims, which were figures of the propiti- 
atory sacrifice of Christ, that they might 
be convinced God had 3 T et a regard to the 
posterity of Abraham, and the worship 
which he himself had established ; and 
might thus support themselves with the 
pleasing hope of the coming of the Mes- 
siah, the great angel of the covenant, to 
his temple. 

And as this miracle of the anoel descend- 
ing from heaven began when the coming 
of the Messiah was at hand, to advise them 
of the speedy and near approach of that 
promised salvation ; so Christ entered these 
porches, which were situated without the 
temple, and performed the miracle we 
shall presently relate, to vindicate what 
was the true intent of this gift of healing, 
namely, to lead men to himself, the foun- 
tain opened for sin and uncleanncss : and the 
waters were troubled only at this certain 
season of the passover, or at other stated 
periods, and one only healed each time 
the angel descended; to shew them at once 



74 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



the weakness of the kiw, and the great dif- 
ference between that and the gospel dis- 
pensation ; and to teach them not to rest 
satisfied with the corporal benefit only, as 
in the ministration of an angel, but to re- 
flect attentively on the promises of the 
Messiah's approaching advent. 

Having made these necessary remarks 
relative to the celebrated pool of Bethesda, 
we shall now return to the blessed Jesus, 
who thought proper to visit the porches of 
Bethesda, now crowded with persons la- 
bouring under various diseases. 

Among these objects of pity was one 
who had laboured under his infirmity no 
less than thirty and eight years. The 
length and greatness of this man's afflic- 
tions, which were well known to the Son 
of God, were sufficient to excite his tender 
compassion, and make him the happy ob- 
ject to demonstrate that his power of heal- 
ing was infinitely superior to the sanative 
virtue of the waters of Bethesda ; while 
the rest were suffered to remain in their 
affliction. 

Had not our Lord at this time restored 
any of them to health, he would not have 
acted contrary to the general account 
which the evangelists give of his goodness 
on other occasions, namely, that he healed 
all who came to him. For such diseased 
persons who left their habitations, through 
a persuasion of his power and kindness, 
were proper objects of his mercy ; whereas 
the sick in the cloisters of Bethesda were 
no more so than the other sick throughout 
the whole country, whom he could have 
cured with a single word of his mouth, had 
he been pleased to utter it. 

Our compassionate Lord now approach- 
ed the man whom he had singled out as 
the person on whom to manifest his power: 
he asked him, whether he was desirous of 
being made whole ? — a question which 



must induce the man to declare publicly 
his melancholy case, in the hearing of the 
multitude, and consequently render the 
miracle more conspicuous. And as this 
was done on the sabbath-day, our blessed 
Saviour seems to have wrought it to rouse 
the sons of Jacob from their lethargy, and 
convince the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that 
the long-expected Messiah was now come, 
and had actually visited his people. 

This distressed mortal, beholding Jesus 
with a sorrowful countenance, and under- 
standing that he meant his being healed by 
the sanative virtue of the waters, answered 
in a plaintive accent, Si?; I have no man, 
when the water is troubled, to put me into the 
pool ; but while I am coming, another steppeth 
down before me, John v. 7- But the com- 
passionate Redeemer of mankind soon 
convinced him, that he was not to owe his 
cure to the salutary nature of the waters, 
but to the unbounded power of the Son of 
God; and accordingly said to him, Rise, 
take tip thy bed, and walk. Nor was the 
heavenly mandate any sooner uttered, than 
the impotent man, to the astonishment of 
the multitude, was made whole, and took up 
his bed, and walked, John 5. 9- 

This great and miraculous cure could 
not fail of having a great effect on the 
spectators ; and his carrying his bed on the 
sabbath-day, which the Jews considered 
as a profanation of that day of rest, tended 
greatly to spread the fame of the miracle 
over the whole city. Nor did the man 
scruple to obey the commands of his kind 
physician ; he well knew that the person 
who had the power of working such mira- 
cles must be a great prophet ; and, con- 
sequently, that his injunction could not 
be sinful. He, therefore, thought that he 
gave a sufficient answer to those Jews, who 
told him it was not lawful to carry his bed 
on the sabbath-day, to say, He that made 

me 



AND SAVIOUR, 

me whole, the same said anto me, Take up 
thy bed and walk, John v. 11. He that re- 
stored my strength in an instant, and re- 
moved with a single word a disease that 
had many j^ears afflicted me, commanded 
me, at the same time, to take up my bed 
and walk ; and surely a person endued 
with such power from on high, would not 
have ordered me to do any thing but what 
is truly right. 

The votaries of infidelity should remem- 
ber, that this signal miracle was performed 
in an instant, and even when the patient 
did not expect any such favour, nor even 
know the person to whom he owed it. No 
one, therefore, can pretend that imagina- 
tion had any share in performing it. In 
short, the narrative of this miracle of mercy 
sufficiently proves, that the person who did 
it was reall}' divine. 

Soon after this miracle, Jesus met in 
the temple the man he had healed at the 
pool of Bethesda ; and took the oppor- 
tunity of reminding him, that as he was 
now freed from an infirmity he had pro- 
bably brought upon himself by irregular 
courses, he should be careful to abstain 
from them for the future, lest the Almighty 
should think proper to afflict him in a 
more terrible manner. This man, over- 
joj'ed at having found the divine Physician 
who had relieved him from his melancholy 
condition, repaired to the scribes and Pha- 
risees, and, with a heart overflowing with 
gratitude, innocently told them, that it was 
Jesus who had performed on him so aston- 
ishing a cure; being, doubtless, persuaded 
that they would rejoice at beholding so great 
a prophet. 

But, alas! this was far from being the 
case ; the rulers of Israel, instead of being- 
pleased with the accounts of his many 
stupendous works of mercy and kindness, 
attacked him tumultuously in the temple, 



JESUS CHRIST. 75 

and carried him before the Sanhedrim, 
probably with an intention to take away 
his life, merely because he had done good 
on the sabbath-day. 

Jesus, however, soon vindicated, by 
irrefragrable arguments, the propriety of 
his works; observing, that in doing works 
of mercy and beneficence on the sabbath- 
day, he only imitated his heavenly Father, 
the God of Jacob, whose providence was 
continually employed, without any regard 
to times or seasons, in doing good to the 
children of men. And surely he must be 
more than blind, who cannot discover, 
that the Almighty, on the sabbath, as well 
as on other days, supports the whole 
frame of the universe ; and, by the invi- 
sible operations of his power, continues the 
motion of the heavenly bodies, on the re- 
volution of which the vicissitudes of day 
and night, of summer and winter, so neces- 
sary to the production of the fruits of the 
earth, depend. 

But Jewish prejudice could not be over- 
come by argument. Na} 7 , the very obser- 
vation increased their malice, as he claimed 
a peculiar relation to God ; and by assert- 
ing that he acted like him, insinuated that 
he was equal to the Almighty himself. 

The Saviour of the world did not deny 
this conclusion ; but shewed that he acted 
agreeably to the will of God, and was equal 
with him in power, doing whatsoever he 
saw done by his Father : a convincing 
proof of his Father's love for him. Verily, 
-eerily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing 
of himself, but what he seeth the Father do ; 
for what things soever he doeth, these also 
doth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth 
the Son, and sheweth him all things that 
himself doeth : and he will shew him greater 
works than these, that ye may marcel, John 
v. 19, 20. 

The blessed Jesus added, that he had 

not 



76 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



not only power to heal the sick, but even 
to raise the dead ; and that his Father had 
constituted him the universal Judge of the 
world ; and therefore those who refused to 
honour him, refused to honour the Father. 
But, whosoever believed on him should in- 
herit eternal life. 

And that they might not doubt of the 
truth of his mission, but that he was ac- 
tually invested with the power of raising 
the dead, he desired them to remember 
the undoubted instances he had already 
given of it, in restoring the daughter of 
Jairus, and the widow's son of Nam, to 
life ; and consequently, that he could, on 
any future occasion, exert the same power: 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour 
is coming, and now is, when the dead shall 
hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they 
that hear shall live. For as the Father hath 
life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to 
have life in himself; and hath given him au- 
thority to execute judgment also, because he is 
the Son of man, John v. 25, &c. 

The blessed Jesus added to this, Be not 
surprised at the power of raising a few 
individuals from the dead, and the autho- 
rity of inflicting punishment on a number 
of the human race ; I have a far greater 
power committed to me, even that of rais- 
ing all the sons of Adam at the last day, 
and of judging and rewarding every one of 
them according to his works. Marvel not 
at this : for the hour is coming, in the which all 
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and 
shall come forth; they that have done good, 
unto the resurrection of life ; and they that 
have done evil, unto the resurrection of dam- 
nation, John v. 28, 29- 

The great day of retribution will distin- 
guish between the good and the evil ; for 
the tremendous Judge has been privy to 
all the actions of the sons of men, from 
the beginning to the end of time : nor has 



he any interest to pursue, or any inclination 
to satisfy, different from those of his hea- 
venly Father. And my judgment is just ; 
because I seek not mine own will, but the will oj 
the Father which hath sent me, John v. 30. 

Nothing could more evince the cha- 
racter of our Lord, than these assertions; 
though he did not require his hearers to 
believe them merely on his own testimony ; 
he appealed to that of John, who was a 
burning and a shining light, and in whom, 
for a time, they greatly rejoiced, because 
the prophetic spirit, which had so long 
ceased in Israel, was revived in that holy 
man. Nay, he appealed to a much greater 
testimony than that of John, even that of 
the God of Jacob himself, who was con- 
tinually bearing witness to the truth of his 
mission, by the many miracles he empow- 
ered him to perform; and who, at his 
baptism, had, with an audible sound from 
the courts of heaven, declared him to be 
his beloved Son ; a sound which multi- 
tudes of people had heard, and probably 
even some of those to whom he was now 
speaking. 

The Jews had long expected the Mes- 
siah ; but they had expected him to ap- 
pear as a temporal prince, who would not 
only restore the former lustre of the throne 
of David, but infinitely augment it, and 
even place it over all the kingdoms of the 
earth. And hence they were unwilling to 
acknowledge Jesus for their Messiah, not- 
withstanding the proofs of his mission 
were so undeniable, because they must, in 
so doing, have abandoned all their grand 
ideas of a temporal kingdom. Our blessed 
Saviour, therefore, desired them to con- 
sult their own scriptures, particularly the 
writings of the prophets, where they would 
find the character of the Messiah displayed, 
and be fully convinced they were all ful- 
filled in his person. 

He 



AND SAVIOUR, 

He also gave them to understand, that 
the proofs of his mission were as full and 
cleat as possible, being supported by the 
actions of his life, which in all things 
agreed with his doctrine; for he never 
sought the applause of men, or assumed 
secular power, but was always innocent 
and humble, though he well knew that 
these virtues made him appear little in the 
eyes of those who had no idea of a spiri- 
tual kingdom, but expected the Messiah 
would appear in all the pomp of secular 
authority. 

In short, the fatal infidelity of the Jews 
was principally owing to their pride. They 
had long filled the minds of the people 
with grand ideas of the glory and power 
of the Messiah's kingdom ; they had re- 
presented him as a potent prince, who was 
to appear at once adorned with all the en- 
signs of power : and therefore to have 
ascribed that august character to a mere 
teacher of righteousness, destitute even 
of the ordinary advantages of birth, for- 
tune, and erudition, would have been so 
plain a confession of their ignorance of 
the Scriptures, as must have exposed them 
to the ridicule and contempt of the whole 
people. 

Our blessed Saviour added, that he him- 
self should not onl} T be their own accuser to 
the God of Jacob for their infidelity; but 
Moses, their great legislator, in whom they 
trusted, would join in that unwelcome of- 
fice ; for by denying him to be the Messiah, 
they denied the writings of that prophet. 
For had ye, added he, believed Moses, ye 
nould have believed me; for he wrote of me: 
but if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye 
believe my words ? John v. 46, 47- 

Thus did the blessed Jesus assert him- 
self to be the Son of God, the great Judge 
of the whole earth, and the Messiah pro- 
mised by the prophets : and at the same 



JESUS CHRIST. 77 

time gave them such convincing proofs of 
his being- sent from God, that nothing could 
be said against them. 

Convincing as these proofs were, y< t 
they did not in the least abate the malice 
of the Scribes and Pharisees ; for the very 
next sabbath, upon his disciples plucking 
a few ears of corn as they passed through 
the fields, and eating the grain after rub- 
bing it out in their hands, they again ex- 
claimed against this violation of the sab- 
bath. But our blessed Saviour soon con- 
vinced them of their error, by shewing, 
both from the example of David, and the 
constant practice of their own priests, who 
never omitted the necessary works of the 
temple on the sabbath-day, that works 
of necessity were often permitted, even 
though they broke a ritual command ; that 
acts of mercy were the most acceptable 
services to God, of an\ r whatever ; that it 
was inverting the order of things, to sup- 
pose that man was made for the sabbath, 
and not the sabbath for tlie benefit of man . 
Adding, that if the service of the temple 
should be said to claim a particular dis- 
pensation from the law of the sabbath, he 
and his disciples, whose business of pro- 
moting the salvation of mankind was of 
equal importance, might justly claim the 
same exemption ; as they were carrying 
on a much nobler work than the priests 
who attended on the service of the temple. 
Thus did our blessed Saviour prove, that 
works of mercy should not be left undone, 
though attended with the violation of some 
of the most sacred institutions of the cere- 
monial law. 

Soon after this dispute with the Scribes 
and Pharisees, our blessed Saviour entered 
one of the synagogues of Jerusalem on the 
sabbath-dav, and found there a man whose 
right hand was withered. 

The Pharisees, who observed the eom- 
U passionate 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



78 

passionate Jesus advance towards the man, 
did not doubt but he would heal him ; 
and therefore watched him attentively, 
that they might have something to accuse 
him with to the people. Their hypocrisy 
was arrived to that enormous pitch, that 
they determined to injure his reputation, 
by representing him as a sabbath-breaker, 
if he dared to heal the man ; while they 
themselves were profaning it by an action 
which would have polluted any day ; name- 
ly, of seeking an opportunity of destroying 
a person who had never injured them, but 
done many good actions for the sons of 
Jacob, and was continually labouring for 
their eternal welfare. 

The Saviour of the world was not un- 
apprised of these malicious intentions. 
He knew their designs, and defied their 
impotent power, by informing them of 
the benevolent action he designed, though 
he well knew they would exert every art 
they were masters of, in order to put him 
to death. 

Therefore, when our Saviour ordered 
the man to shew himself to the whole con- 
gregation, in order to excite their pity, 
these hypocritical teachers declared, in 
the strongest terms, the unlawfulness of 
his performing even such beneficent actions 
on the sabbath : Is it lawful to heal on the 
sabbath-day? They did not, however, ask 
this question with an intention to hinder 
him from performing the miracle. No, 
they had a very different intention than 
that of accusing him. For they hoped he 
would have declared openly that such ac- 
tions were lawful ; or, at least, make no 
reply to their demands, which they would 
have construed into an acknowledgment of 
what they asserted. 

Nor did our Lord fail to expose their 
malice and superstition ; and accordingly 
asked them, Is it lawful, on the sabbath-day, 



to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to 
destroy it? Luke iv. 6. Is it not more 
lawful for me, on the sabbath-day, to save 
men's lives, than for you to seek my death 
without the least provocation ? This severe 
rebuke would admit of no answer, and 
therefore they held their peace, pretending 
not to understand his meaning. He there- 
fore made use of an argument, which stu- 
pidity itself could not fail of understand- 
ing, and which all the art of these hypo- 
critical sophists were unable to answer. 
What man, said the blessed Jesus, shall there 
be among you, that shall have one sheep, and 
if it fall into a pit on the sabbath-day, will he 
not lay hold on it, and lift it out ? How much 
then is a man better than a sheep ? Where- 
fore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath-day, 
Matt. xii. 11, 12. 

The former question they pretended not 
to understand, and therefore held their 
peace ; but this argument effectually si- 
lenced them, though they were determined 
not to be convinced. This unconquer- 
able obstinacy grieved the spirit of the 
meek, the benevolent Jesus, who beheld 
them zcith anger; that, if possible, an im- 
pression might be made, either on them or 
the spectators. 

But at the same time that he testified his 
displeasure towards the Pharisees, he ut- 
tered words of comfort to the lame man, 
bidding him stretch forth his hand : and 
he no sooner obeyed the divine command, 
than it was restored whole as the other. 

This astonishing work, performed in the 
midst of a congregation, many of whom, 
doubtless, knew the man while he labour- 
ed under this infirmity, and in presence 
of his most inveterate enemies, must cer- 
tainly have had a great effect on the minds 
of the people, especially as they saw it had 
effectually silenced the Pharisees, who had 
nothing to offer either against the miracle 

itself, 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



79 



itself, or the reasonings and power of him 
who had performed it. 

But though these whited sepulchres, as 
our blessed Saviour justly termed them, 
were silenced by his arguments, and as- 
tonished at his miracles, yet they were so 
far from abandoning their malicious in- 
tentions, that they joined their inveterate 
enemies, the Herodians, or Saclducees, in 
order to consult how they might destroy 
him ; well knowing, that if he continued 
his preaching and working of miracles, 
the people would wholly follow him, and 
their own power soon become contemp- 
tible. Jesus, however, thought proper to 
prevent their malicious designs, by retiring 
into Galilee, and there pursuing his bene- 
volent purposes. 

This retreat could not however conceal 
him from the multitude, who flocked to him 
from all quarters, bringing with them the 
sick and maimed ; who were all healed, and 
sent away in peace. 

Some of his disciples, however, who still 
entertained the popular opinion, that the 
Messiah would establish his kingdom by 
force, and bear down all opposition, were 
extremely mortified to find their Master 
retreat from so weak an enemy. But had 
they read with attention the prophecy of 
Isaiah, they would have known that this 
was one part of the Messiah's character. 
Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my 
Beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased : I 
will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall 
shew judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not 
strive nor cry ; neither shall any man hear his 
voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he 
not break, and smoking flax shall he not 
quench, till he send forth judgment unto vic- 
tory. And in his name shall the Gentiles 
trust, Matt. xii. 18, &c. 

Though there are several small varia- 
tions between this prophecy, as quoted by 



St. Matthew, and the original, in the book 
of Isaiah; yet the sense in both places is 
the same. And we cannot help observing, 
that there is in this prophecy an evident 
difference between the publication of the 
Jewish religion by Moses, and the Chris- 
tian religion by Christ. The doctrine of 
salvation, as taught by Moses, extended 
only to the single nation of the Jews ; 
whereas that published by the Messiah ex- 
tended to every nation and people under 
heaven. Accordingly, our blessed Saviour, 
by retiring into Galilee, fulfilled the first 
part of this famous prophecy ; He shall 
shew judgment to the Gentiles; for the evan- 
gelist tells us, great multitudes came to him 
from beyond Jordan, and from Syria, about 
Tyre and Sidon. 

Being now returned into Galilee, there 
was brought unto him a blind and dumb 
man, possessed with a devil ; but Je>u>, 
with a single word, cast out the evil spirit, 
and restored the noble faculties of sight 
and speech. A miracle so surprising could 
not fail of astonishing the numerous specta- 
tors, who now seemed convinced, that the 
person endued with such remarkable power, 
could be no other than the Messiah. 

The Pharisees, who were come thither 
from Jerusalem, filled with malice at see- 
ing him perform so many miracles, impi- 
ously asserted, contrary to the conviction 
of their own minds, that they were wrought 
by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of 
the devils. 

So blasphemous a declaration could not 
be supposed to escape a censure from the 
Son of God, w r ho, addressing himself both 
to them and the people, demonstrated the 
absurdity of the calumny, by an argument 
drawn from the common affairs of life. 
Every kingdom, said the blessed Jesus, 
divided against itself, is brought to deso- 
lation ; and every city or house divided 

against 



80 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



against itself, shall not stand. And if Satan 
cast out Satan, he is divided against him- 
self, how then shall his kingdom stand? 
Your calumny is malicious and absurd : it 
is malicious, because your own consciences 
are convinced of its falsehood ; and it is 
absurd, because Satan cannot assist me in 
preaching the kingdom of God, and de- 
stroying all the works of darkness, unless 
he be divided against himself, and destroy 
all the works of his own kingdom. Adding, 
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by 
whom do your children cast them out? there- 
fore they shall be your judges. Hut if I cast 
out devils by the Spirit of God, then the king- 
dom of God is come unto you. Ye did not 
impute the miracles of your prophets to 
Beelzebub, but received them, on the evi- 
dence of their miracles, as the messengers 
of God. But yet ye reject me, who work 
greater and more numerous miracles than 
they, and impute them to the power of 
evil spirits. Is this conduct reconcileable ? 
These prophets, therefore, shall be your 
judges, they shall condemn you. But as 
it is true, that I cast out devils by the 
assistance of the Almighty, it follows, that 
the kingdom of God, so long expected, is 
going to be established. 

But against the Son of man, blasphemy, 
however great, may be forgiven you, be- 
cause stronger and more evident proofs of 
my mission may convince you of your 
sins, and induce you to embrace the offers 
of eternal life. And the time is coming, 
when the Son of man shall be raised from 
the dead by the power of the Holy Ghost, 
the gifts of miracles showered on almost 
all believers, and the nature of the Mes- 
siah's kingdom more fully explained, in 
order to remove the foundation of your 
prejudice, the expectation of a temporal 
prince. But if you then shut your eyes, 
and speak evil against the Holy Ghost, by 



affirming that his gifts and miracles pro- 
ceed from the prince of darkness, it shall 
never be forgiven you : because it is a sin 
you cannot possibly repent of, as no greater 
means of conviction will be afforded ; but 
you shall be punished for it, both in this 
world, and in that which is to come. 
Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin 
and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but 
the blasphemy agamst the Holy Ghost shall not 
be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speak- 
eth a word against the Son of man, it shall be 
forgiven him ; but whosoever speaketh against 
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, 
neither in this world, neither in the world to 
come, Matt. xii. 31, 32. 

This solemn sentence, on the sin against 
the Holy Ghost, was probably now pro- 
nounced by our Saviour, to awaken the 
consciences of the Pharisees, by a sense of 
their danger, if they continued in such de- 
testable calumnies, when their own hearts 
sufficiently told them, that they flowed en- 
tirely from malice and resentment. 

But all his reasonings and threatenings 
had no effect on this perverse sect of mor- 
tals, who sarcastically answered, Master, 
we would see a sign from thee. Strange stu- 
pidity ! had not he, a short time before, 
cast out a devil, and restored the faculties 
of sight and speech to the blind and dumb ? 
cleansed lepers, raised the dead, and even 
rebuked the tempestuous winds and waves? 
Were not these signs sufficient to convince 
the most bigoted mortal ? What therefore 
could these stubborn doctors of the law 
require ? Well might the great Saviour of 
the world call them a wicked and adulterous 
generation ; for surely they could boast of 
no part of the faith and piety of Abraham, 
their great progenitor. Persons of such 
incorrigible inclinations certainly merited 
no indulgence ; and, accordingly, Jesus 
told them they should have no other sign 

given 



AND SAVIOUR, 

given tliem, but what they every day be- 
held, the sign of the prophet Jonas, who, 
by living three days and three nights in 
the belly of the whale, was a type of the 
Son of God, who should continue three 
days and three nights in the chambers of 
the tomb. Adding;, that the Ninevites re- 
pented at the preaching of the prophet 
Jonas ; and the queen of the South under- 
took a long journey to Jerusalem, to hear 
the wisdom of Solomon ; but they refused 
to attend to the doctrines of an infinitely 
greater prophet than Jonas, or listen to one 
much wiser than Solomon. Concluding 
his discourse with a very apposite parable, 
tending; to shew the great danger of resist- 
ing conviction, and breaking through re- 
solutions, as such actions tended entirely 
to render men more obdurate and aban- 
doned than before. 

During this dispute with the Pharisees, 
Jesus was informed that his mother and 
brethren, or kinsmen, were without, de- 
siring to speak to him ; upon which the 
blessed Jesus stretched out his hands to- 
wards his disciples, and said, Behold my 
mother and my brethren ! For whosoever shall 
do the will of my Father which is in heaven, 
the same is my brother, and sister, and mother, 
Matt. xii. 49, 50. This glorious truth 
should be stamped on the minds of all 
believers, as it shews that every one, of 
what nation or kindred soever, who is 
brought into subjection to the will of God, 
is allied to the blessed Jesus, and entitled 
to the salvation of God. 

CHAP. XIII. 

Our Lord delivers many remarkable Para- 
bles, and captains several of them. — Re- 
turns to Nazareth, and commissions the 
Twelve Apostles, whom he had before se- 
lected as his constant Attendants and Fol- 



JESUS CHRIST. 81 

lowers, to disperse, and preach the Gospel 
of the kingdom of God, in divers Vlaces. 
— Circumstances of the Death of John the 
Baptist. 

HE miraculous power of our blessed 
Lord, both in performing the most 
astonishing acts, and confuting the most 
learned of the Pharisaical tribe, who en- 
deavoured to oppose his mission and doc- 
trine, brought together so great a multi- 
tude, that he repaired to the sea-side ; and 
for the better instructing the people, enter- 
ed into a ship, and the whole multitude 
stood on the shore. Being thus conveni- 
ently seated, he delivered many doctrines 
of the utmost importance, beginning with 
the parable of the sower, who cast his seed 
on different kinds of soil, the products of 
which were answerable to the nature of 
the ground, some yielding a large increase, 
others nothing at all. By this striking si- 
militude, the blessed Jesus represented the 
different kinds of hearers, and the different 
manner in which they were affected by the 
truths of religion. Some w r holly suppress 
the doctrines delivered, in others they pro- 
duce the fruits of righteousness in differ- 
ent proportions. And surely a more pro- 
per parable could not have been delivered, 
when such multitudes came to hear his 
discourses, and so few practised the pre- 
cepts, or profited by the heavenly doctrines, 
they contained. 

To vindicate the propriety of our Sa- 
viour's conduct, it may not be amiss here 
to observe, that parables were very familiar 
to the Oriental nations, and particularly so 
in Palestine, as we learn from the concur- 
rent testimony of all the Eastern writers ; 
and it was the general method, both of the 
old prophets, John the Baptist, and our 
blessed Saviour himself, to allude to things 
present, and such as immediately offered 
X themselves. 




82 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



themselves. Our Saviour also, by using 
this manner of teaching, fulfilled the pro- 
phecies concerning the Messiah, relating 
to his method of instruction, it being fore- 
told, that he should open his mouth in para- 
bles, and utter things which had been kept 
secret from the foundation of the world. It is 
therefore no wonder that the mysteries of 
the kingdom of heaven are generally the 
subject of our Saviour's parables ; his grand 
and fundamental doctrines being delivered 
in clear, plain, and express terms, but some- 
times heightened and enlivened by the ad- 
dition of beautiful parables. Similitudes 
of this kind are, indeed, the most simple 
method of teaching, and best accommo- 
dated to the apprehensions of the vulgar 
and unlearned, and very easy to be remem- 
bered, understood, and applied. At the 
same time, they are the finest vail for 
mysteries, and the best means of convict- 
ing the proud and obstinate, as well as 
concealing from them those truths which 
their perverseness and infidelity have ren- 
dered them unworthy of having more 
clearly displayed. 

But to return. The parable being finish- 
ed, his disciples asked why he taught the 
people in parables? To which he answered, 
Because it is given unto you to know the mys- 
teries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them 
it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him 
shall be given, and he shall have more abun- 
dance : but whosoever hath not, from him shall 
be taken away even that he hath. Therefore 
speak I to them in parables : because they 
seeing, see not; and hearing, they hear not, 
neither do they understand, Matt. xiii. 11, 
&c. As if he had said, You, my beloved 
disciples, who are of a humble docile 
temper, and are willing to use means, and 
resort to me for instruction, and the ex- 
planation of the truths I deliver ; to you it 
shall be no disadvantage, that they are de- 



livered in parables. Besides, my discourses 
are plain and intelligible to all unpreju- 
diced minds ; truth will shine through the 
vail in which it is arrayed, and the shadow 
will guide you to the substance. But these 
proud, these self-conceited Pharisees, who 
are so blinded by their own prejudices 
that they will neither hear nor understand 
a thing plainly delivered ; to them I preach 
in parables, and hide the great truths of 
the gospel under such metaphorical robes 
as will for ever conceal them from persons 
of their temper. They have, therefore, 
brought upon themselves this blindness, 
that in seeing they see not ; and this wilful 
deafness, that in hearing they hear not, 
neither do they understand. 

The blessed Jesus added, that there was 
no reason for their being surprised at what 
he had told them, as it had long before 
been predicted by the prophet Isaiah. 
By hearing, ye shall hear, and shall not under- 
stand; and seeing, ye shall see, and shall not 
perceive. For this peoples heart is waxed 
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and 
their eyes have they closed; lest at any time 
they should see with their eyes, and hear with 
their ears, and should understand with their 
heart, and should be converted, and, I should 
heal them, Matt. xii. 14, 15. There is 
some variation in the words, as quoted by 
the evangelist, and those found in Isaiah, 
but the import of both is the same, and 
may be paraphrased in the following man- 
ner : 4 The sons of Jacob shall, indeed, 
' hear the doctrines of the gospel, but not 
' understand them ; and see the miracles 
' by which these doctrines are confirmed, 
* without perceiving them to be wrought 
' by the finger of God : not because the 
' evidences produced by the Messiah are 
' insufficient, but because the corruption 
' of their hearts will not suffer them to 
' examine and weigh these evidences ; for 

4 the 



AND SAVIOUR, 

' the sins of this people have hardened 
' their hearts, their pride and vanity have 
' shut their ears, and their hypocrisy, and 
' bigoted adherence to traditions and forced 
' interpretations of the law and the pro- 
' phets, have closed their eyes, lest the bril- 
' liant rays of truth should strike their sight 
; with irresistible force, and the powerful 
' voice of divine Wisdom force their at- 
' tention, and command their assent ; being 
I unwilling to be directed to the paths of 
\ righteousness which lead to the heavenly 
' Canaan/ 

Such are the reasons given by our 
blessed Saviour for his teaching the peo- 
ple by parables ; and to enhance the great 
privilege his disciples enjoyed, he added, 
that many patriarchs and prophets of old 
had earnestly desired to see and hear those 
things which the people now saw and 
heard, but were denied that favour; God 
having, till then, shewed them to his most 
eminent saints in shadows only, and as 
they lay brooding in the womb of futurity. 
But blessed are your eyes, for they see ; and 
your ears, for they hear. For verily I say un- 
to you, that many prophets and righteous men 
hare desired to see those things which ye see, 
and have not seen them : and to hear those 
things, which ye hear, and have not heard them. 
Matt. xiii. 1*6. 

Our Lord having by these means excited 
the desire of his disciples, proceeded to 
explain to them the parable of the sower. 
The sower, said he, soweth the word. The 
seed, therefore, implies the doctrines of 
true religion ; and the various kinds of soil, 
the various kinds of hearers. The ground 
by the high-way side, which is apt to be 
beaten by men treading upon it, is an 
image of those who have their minds so 
blinded by impiety, that though they hear 
the gospel preached, it makes no impres- 
sion on their callous hearts, because they 



JESUS CHRIST. 85 

either hear it inattentively, or quickly for- 
get the words of the preacher. And surely 
no similitude could more strongly repre- 
sent this insensibility and inattention, than 
the beaten ground bordering- on the high- 
way, into which this seed never entering, 
it is picked up by the fowls of the air, or 
trodden and broken by the feet of passen- 
gers. Jf hen any one heareth tlie word of the 
kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh 
the wicked one, and catcheth away that which 
was sown in his heart ; this is he which received 
seed by the way side, Matt. xiii. 19- 

We must not suppose, that the devil 
has the power of robbing hearers of their 
knowledge by an immediate act of his 
own, because he is said to catch away the 
word sown in their hearts ; but by the 
opportunities they give the deceiver of 
mankind for exerting his strong tempta- 
tions, and particularly those which have a 
relation to their commerce with men : a cir- 
cumstance that could not escape the obser- 
vation of St. Luke, who tells us that the 
seed was trodden down, or destroyed, by 
their own headstrong lusts, which, like so 
many birds pinched with hunger, devoured 
the seed implanted in their minds. 

The rocky ground represents those 
hearers, who so far receive the word into 
their hearts, that it discovers itself by good 
resolutions formed on slight conviction, 
which are, perhaps, accompanied with a 
partial reformation of some sins, and the 
temporary practice of some virtues. But 
the word has not sunk deep enough in 
their minds to remain constantly there; 
its abode with them is only for a season : 
and, therefore, when persecution ariseth 
for the sake of the gospel, and such hearers 
are exposed to tribulations of any kind, the 
blade, which sprung up quickly, withers, 
for want of being watered with the streams 
of piety and virtue, like the vegetable 

productions 



84 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



productions of the earth, when deprived of 
the enlivening rains and dews of heaven, 
and a want of earth to contain this balmy 
fluid, when the rays of the sun dart in full 
vigour upon them. But he that received 
the seed into stony places, the same is he that 
heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth 
it : yet hath he not root in himself ', Out dureth 
for a while ; for when tribulation and perse- 
cution ariseth, because of the word, by and by 
he is offended, Matt. xiii. 20, 21. 

The ground encumbered with thorns, 
which sprung up with the seed, and choked 
it, represents all those who receive the word 
into their hearts, but who suffer the cares 
of this world to spring up, which will, 
sooner or later, destroy whatever good reso- 
lutions are raised by the word. The cares of 
the world are compared to thorns, not only 
because of their pernicious tendency in 
choking the word, but because they can- 
not be eradicated without great pain and 
difficulty. In this parable, the hearers of 
this denomination are distinguished from 
those who receive the seed on stony 
ground, not so much by the effect of the 
word upon their minds, as by the different 
causes of unfruitfulness in each ; for in 
both the seeds sprang up, but brought forth 
no fruit. Those represented by the stony 
ground have no depth of soil ; those by 
the thorny ground, are choked by the 
cares of this world, by the deceitfulness of 
riches, and the love of pleasures, which, 
sooner or later, will stifle the impressions 
of the word ; by which means they at last 
become as unfruitful as the former. But 
both are distinguished from those hearers 
represented by the seed sown by the high- 
way-side, that they received the word, 
and, in some measure, obey its precepts. 
Whereas, the first never retained the word 
at all, hearing without attention ; or if they 
do attend, forget it immediately. He also 



that receiveth seed among the thorns, is he 
that heareth the word ; and the cares of this 
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke 
the word, and he becometh unfruitful, Matt, 
xiii. 22. 

In opposition to these unprofitable hear- 
ers of the word, others are represented as 
hearing the word attentively, understand- 
ing it clearly, and treasuring it up with 
great care. These are convinced of the 
truths delivered, and practise them, though 
contrary to their prejudices, and opposite 
to their inclinations. All those bring forth, 
some an hundred fold, some sixty, and 
some thirty, in proportion to the different 
degrees of strength in which they possess 
the graces necessary to the profitable hear- 
ing the word of righteousness. 

Having ended this interpretation of the 
parable of the sower, he continued his dis- 
course to his disciples, explaining to them, 
by the similitude of a lighted lamp, the 
use they were expected to make of all the 
excellent instructions they had and should 
receive from him. Their understanding, 
he told them, was to illuminate the world, 
as a brilliant lamp, placed in the centre of 
an apartment, enlightens the whole. He 
added, that though some of the doctrines 
of the gospel were then concealed from 
the people, because of their prejudices, yet 
the time would come when these doctrines 
should be preached openly and plainly 
through the world ; and therefore it was 
their duty, to whom God had given both 
an opportunity of hearing, and a capacity 
of understanding these doctrines, to listen 
with the utmost attention. Is a candle 
brought to be put under a bushel, or under a 
bed, and not to be set on a candlestick? For 
there is nothing hid, which shall not be mani- 
fested ; neither was any thing kept secret, but 
that it should come abroad. If any man have 
ears to hear, let him hear, Mark iv. 21, 22, 23. 

But 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



8j 



But as it was a matter of great import- 
ance that the disciples who were to publish 
the gospel throughout the whole world 
should listen with the closest attention to 
his sermons, he repeated his admonitions : 
adding, that their present privileges and 
future rewards should be both proportioned 
to the fidelity and care with which they 
discharged the important trust committed 
to them. Take heed what ye hear: with 
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to 
you ; and unto you that hear shall more be 
given, Mark iv. 24. 

Having explained these parables to his 
disciples, he turned himself to the multi- 
tude on the shore, and, in his usual endear- 
ing accent, delivered the parable of the 
enemy sowing tares among the wheat ; and 
on their first appearance astonishing the 
husbandman's servants, who knew the field 
had been sowed with good seed ; and, in 
order to free the wheat from such injurious 
plants, proposed to root them up. But this 
the husbandman absolutely refused, lest, 
by extirpating the one, they injured the 
other; adding, that he would take care, at 
the time of harvest, to give orders to his 
reapers, that they should first gather the 
tares into bundles, and burn them, and 
afterwards cany the wheat to the granaries. 
The kingdom of heaven, said the blessed 
Jesus, is likened unto a man which sowed good 
seed in his field ; but while men slept, his 
enemy came, and sowed tares among the 
wheat, and went his way. But when the blade- 
was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then 
appeared the tares also. So the servants of 
the householder came, and said unto him, Sir, 
didst thou not sow good seed in thy field ? 
from whence then hath it tares ? He said 
unto them, An enemy hath done this. The 
servants said unto him, JJ ilt thou then that ~we 
go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; 
lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up 



also the wheat with them. Let both gran to- 
gether until the harvest: and in the time <>( 
harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye to- 
gether first the tares, and bind them in bundl 
to burn them ; but gather the wheat into nnj 
barn, Matt. xiii. 24, &c. 

This parable of the tares being ended, he 
spake another, concerning the seed which 
sprung up secretly, representing the gra- 
dual progress of the gospel among the sons 
of men. He informed them, under this 
similitude, that the husbandman does not, 
by any efficacy of his, cause the seed he 
casts into the ground to grow, but leaves it 
to be nourished by the teeming virtues of 
the soil, and the enlivening rays of the 
sun : in the same manner, Jesus and his 
apostles, having taught men the doctrine 
of true religion, were not by any miracu- 
lous force to constrain the wills, much less 
by the terrors of fire and sword to inter- 
pose visibly in the promotion of it ; but 
suffer it to spread by the secret influences 
of the Holy Spirit, till it attained its full 
effect. And as the husbandman cannot, 
by the most diligent observation, perceive 
the corn in his field extending its dimen- 
sions as it grows ; so the ministers of Christ 
were not, at the first planting of the gospel, 
to expect to see it make a sudden progress 
through the world. 

The ministers of religion must not, how- 
ever, from hence imagine, that religion 
will flourish without their carefully and im- 
portunately pressing its precepts upon the 
minds of their hearers. The parable was 
spoken to inform the Jews in particular, 
that neither the Messiah nor his servants 
would employ force to establish the king- 
dom of God, as they vainly expected the 
Messiah would have done; and to prevent 
the disciples from fainting, when they saw 
that an immediate and rapid success 
did not attend their labours. So is the 

jl kingdom 



86 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed 
into the ground; and should sleep and rise 
night and day, and the seed should spring 
and grow up he knoweth not how. For the 
earth bringeth forth fruit of herself: first the 
blade, then the ear, after that the full com in 
the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, 
immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the 
harvest is come, Mark iv. 26, &c. 

The next parable he spake to the multi- 
tude was that of the mustard-seed, which, 
though very small when sown, becomes, in 
Palestine and other parts of the East, a 
full-spreading tree. Intimating to his au- 
dience, under this similitude, that notwith- 
standing the gospel would at first appear 
contemptible, from the ignominy flowing 
from the crucifixion of its Author, the 
strictness of its precepts, the weakness of 
the persons by whom it was preached, 
and the small number and mean condi- 
tion of those who received it ; yet being 
founded on truth itself, it would increase 
to an astonishing magnitude, filling the 
whole earth, and affording a spiritual nou- 
rishment to persons of all nations, who 
should enjoy all the privileges of the 
Messiah's kingdom equally with the Jews. 
And surely a more proper parable could 
not have been uttered, to encourage his 
disciples to persevere in the work of the 
ministry, notwithstanding it would in the 
beginning be opposed by the learned, the 
rich, and the powerful. The kingdom of 
heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, 
which a man took and sowed in his field. 
JJ /rich indeed is the least of all seeds ; but 
when it is grown, it is the greatest among 
herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds 
of t/ie air come and lodge in the brandies 
thereof Matt. xiii. 31, 32. 

Our blessed Saviour concluded his dis- 
course to the multitude with the parable 
of the leaven, to intimate the influence of 



the doctrine of the gospel on the minds 
of particular persons. The kingdom of hea- 
ven is like unto leaven, which a woman took 
and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole 
was leavened, Matt. xiii. 33. 

While Jesus was thus employed in his 
heavenly Father's business, his mother and 
brethren came a second time, desiring to 
see him. In all probability they feared 
that the continued fatigue of preaching 
would injure his health ; and were there- 
fore desirous of taking him with them, 
that he might refresh himself. But the 
blessed Jesus, who was never weary of 
doing good, answered his indulgent parent, 
as before ; My mother and my brethren are 
these which hear the word of God, and do it, 
Luke viii. 21. 

Night approaching, Jesus dismissed the 
multitude, and returned to the house in 
Capernaum where he abode, and there 
explained to his disciples the parable of 
the tares in the field. The husbandman, 
said the blessed Saviour, is the Son of man ; 
the field, the Christian church, planted in 
different parts of the world ; the wheat, are 
those that believe in Christ, who obey the 
precepts of the gospel, and are supported 
by the influences of the Holy Spirit ; and 
the tares, the bad professors, seduced into 
the paths of vice by the temptations of the 
devil. Our blessed Lord, therefore, by this 
parable, represented the mixed nature of 
the church on earth, the dismal end of the 
hypocrites, and those who forget God ; for 
these may deceive for a time, by assuming 
the robes of virtue and religion, yet they 
will not fail, sooner or later, to betray 
themselves, and shew that they are only 
wolves in sheep's clothing. At the same 
time, however sincerely we may wish to 
see the church freed from her corrupted 
members, we must not extirpate them by 
force, lest, being deceived by outward 

appearances, 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



87 



appearances, we also destroy the wheat, 
or sound members. We must leave this 
distinction to that awful day, when the 
great Messiah will descend to judgment; 
for then a final separation will be made : 
the wicked cast into torments that will 
never have an end ; but the righteous re- 
ceived into life eternal, where they shall 
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their 
Father, Matt. xiii. 43. 

Our Lord, on this occasion, delivered 
the parable of the treasure hid in the field, 
and of the pearl of great price, both de- 
signed for the same purpose, to promote 
the diligence, zeal, and resolution, of his 
disciples, in searching into and teaching 
these great and important truths, in which 
the glory of God, and the salvation of souls, 
were so much concerned. And surely the 
similitudes, both of the treasure and pearl, 
are very naturally used to signify the gospel ; 
the former, as it enriches all who possess it; 
and the latter, because it is more precious 
than rubies. 

But that the disciples must expect that 
the Christian church would consist of a 
mixed multitude of people, the good 
blended with the bad, in such a manner 
that it would be difficult to separate them ; 
he compared it to a net cast into the sea, 
which gathered fish of every kind, good and 
bad, which were separated when the net 
was drawn to land ; that is, at the last great 
day of accounts, when the righteous will be 
conveved to life eternal, and the wicked 
cast into everlasting misery. 

Our blessed Saviour, having finished 
these parables, asked his disciples, if they 
understood them ? and upon their answer- 
ing in the affirmative, he added, that every 
teacher of the gospel ought to resemble a 
person whose house was completely fur- 
nished, and brought forth out of his trea- 
sure things new and old. 



Soon after, Jesus left Capernaum, and 
repaired to Nazareth, where he had been 
brought up, and preached in the syna- 
gogue the glad tidings of the kingdom of 
God; but his townsmen, though astonished 
at his doctrine, could not overcome the 
prejudices they had conceived against him, 
on account of the meanness of his family, 
and thence refused to own him for the 
Messiah. Our Saviour, finding them the 
same incorrigible persons as when he visited 
them before, departed from them, and 
taught in the neighbouring villages. They, 
in common with all the Jews, were stran- 
gers to the true character of the Messiah, 
whom they considered as a temporal prince ; 
and therefore could not bear that a person, 
so mean as Jesus appeared to be, should 
perform works peculiar to that idol of 
their vanity, a glorious, triumphant, secular 
Messiah. 

While our Lord resided in the neigh- 
bourhood of Nazareth, he sent out his dis- 
ciples to preach in different parts of Galilee, 
and to proclaim the glad tidings, that God 
was then going to establish the kingdom 
of the Messiah, wherein he would be wor- 
shipped in spirit and in truth. And in 
order that they might confirm the doctrines 
they delivered, and prove that the)- had re- 
ceived their commission from the Son of 
God, they were endowed with the power of 
working miracles. How long the)' conti- 
nued their preaching cannot be known, but 
it is reasonable to think they spent a con- 
siderable time in it, preaching in several 
parts of Judea. 

The miracles which the apostles wrought 
raised the expectations of men higher than 
ever ; the people were astonished to see the 
disciples of Jesus perform so many mira- 
cles ; and thence concluded, that our Sa- 
viour must be greater than any of the old 
prophets, who could not transmit the 

power 



88 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



power they enjoyed to any other. This 
extraordinary circumstance could not fail 
of spreading his fame through the whole 
country; it even reached the ears of He- 
rod the Tetrarch, who, fearing a person 
of such extraordinary abilities, was very 
uneasy; which some of his courtiers ob- 
serving, endeavoured to remove, telling 
him, that one of the old prophets was risen 
from the dead : but this did not satisfy 
him, and he declared that he believed it 
was John the Baptist risen from the dead. 
And he said unto his servants, This is John the 
Baptist ; he is risen from the dead, and there- 
fore mighti/ wo?-ks do shew forth themselves in 
him, Matt. xiv. 2. 

The evangelists having on this account 
mentioned John the Baptist, inform us that 
Herod had put him to death ; but when this 
happened is uncertain. 

It has already been observed, that Herod 
had cast John into prison for his boldness 
in reproving him for the adulterous com- 
merce in which he lived with his brother's 
wife. The sacred writers have not told us 
how long he continued in prison ; but it is 
plain from his two disciples, who came 
from him to our Saviour, that his followers 
did not forsake him in his melancholy con- 
dition. Nay, Herod himself both respected 
and feared him, knowing that he was highly 
and deserved^ beloved by the people ; he 
consulted him often, and in many things 
followed his advice. But Herodias, his 
brother's w T ife, with whom he lived in so 
shameful a manner, being continually un- 
easy lest Herod should be prevailed upon 
to set him at liberty, sought all opportuni- 
ties to destroy him : and at last an incident 
happened, which enabled her to accomplish 
her intention. 

The king having on his birth-day made 
a great feast for his friends, she sent her 
daughter Salome, whom she had by Philip, 



her lawful husband, into the saloon, to 
dance before the king and his guests. Her 
performance was remarkably elegant, and 
so charmed Herod, that he promised with 
an oath to give her whatever she asked. 

Having obtained so remarkable a pro- 
mise, she ran to her mother, desiring to 
know what she should ask ? and was in- 
structed by that wicked woman, to require 
the head of John the Baptist. Her mo- 
ther's desire, doubtless, surprised Salome, 
as she could not possibly see the use of 
asking what would be of no service to her. 
But Herodias would take no denial, pe- 
remptorily insisting on her demanding the 
head of the Baptist. Accordingly, she 
returned to Herod, saying, I will tliat thou 
give me, by and by, in a charger, the head of 
John the Baptist. 

So cruel a request thrilled every breast : 
the gaiety of the king was vanished ; he 
was vexed and confounded. But being 
unwilling to appear either rash, fickle, or 
false, before a company of the first persons 
of his kingdom for rank and character, he 
commanded the head to be given her ; not 
one of the guests having the courage to 
speak a single word in behalf of an innocent 
man, or attempt to divert Herod from his 
mad purpose, though he gave them an op- 
portunity of doing it, by signifying to them 
that he performed his oath merely out of 
regard to the company. Thus Herod, 
through a misplaced regard to his oath and 
his guests, committed a most unjust and 
cruel action; an action that will for ever 
brand his memory with dishonour, and 
render his very name detestable to the 
latest posterity. 

Soon after the command was given, the 
head of that venerable prophet, whose re- 
bukes had struck Herod with awe in his 
loosest moments, and whose exhortations 
had often alarmed his guilty conscience, 

was 



AND SAVIOUR, 

was brought, pale and bloody, in a char- 
ger, and given to the daughter of Herodias 
in the presence of all the guests. 

The young lady eagerly received the 
bloody present, and carried it to her mo- 
ther, who enjoyed the whole pleasure of 
revenge, and feasted her eyes with the 
sight of her enemy's head, now silent and 
harmless. But she could not silence the 
name of the Baptist; it became louder and 
louder, filling the earth and heavens, and 
publishing to every people and nation this 
woman's baseness and adultery. 

Thus fell that great and good man John 
the Baptist, who was proclaimed, by our 
blessed Saviour himself, to be more than a 
prophet. Josephus tells us, that his whole 
crime consisted in exhorting the Jews to the 
love and practice of virtue ; and in the first 
place, to piety, justice, and regeneration, or 
newness of life ; and not by the abstinence 
from this or that particular sin, but by an 
habitual purity of mind and bocty. 

It may not be improper, on this occasion, 
to hint, that the history of this birth-day, 
transmitted to posterity in the scriptures, 
stands a perpetual beacon, to warn the 
great, the gay, and the young, to beware 
of dissolute mirth. Admonished by so fatal 
an example, they should be careful to main- 
tain, in the midst of their cheerfulness, an 
habitual recollection of spirit, lest reason, at 
any time enervated by the pleasures of 
sense, should slacken the rein of wisdom, 
or let it drop, though only for a moment ; 
because their headstrong passions, ever im- 
patient of control, may catch the opportu- 
nity, and rush with them into follies, whose 
consequences will be unspeakably, perhaps 
eternalljr, bitter. 

CHAP. XIV. 

Our Lord adds to the Confirmation of his Mis- 
sion and Doctrine, by working a Miracle in 



JESUS CHRIST. 89 

the Wilderness of Bethsaida. — The People, 
struck with the Power and Grace of the bless- 
ed Jesus, propose to raise him to the earthly 
Dignity of King. — Peter, by Means of his 
blessed Master, performs a Miracle in wall- 
ing upon the Sea. — Our Lord's Improve- 
ment of the Miracles wrought in the If ilder- 
ness, introduced in a Discourse delivered in 
the Synagogue of Capernaum. 

FTHHE disciples were so alarmed at the 
cruel fate of the Baptist, whose me- 
mory they highly revered, that they re- 
turned from their mission, and assisted in 
performing the last offices to the body of 
their old master, many of the apostles having 
been originally disciples of John. As soon 
as these pious rites were over, they re- 
paired to Jesus, and told him all that had 
happened. 

Their compassionate Master, on hearing 
this melancholy news, retired with them by 
sea into a desert place, belonging to Beth- 
saida, that by retirement, meditation, and 
prayer, they might be refreshed and recruited 
for their spiritual labours ; and, at the same 
time, leave an example to us, that we should 
often retire from the noise and hurry of the 
world, and offer up the most fervent prayers 
to our heavenly Father. 

But the multitude attended so closely, 
that their departure was not long concealed ; 
and great numbers of people repaired to 
the place where they supposed Jesus and his 
disciples had secluded themselves. Struck 
with the greatness of his miracles on those 
that were sick, and anxious to hear more 
instructions from the mouth of so divine a 
teacher, no difficulties were too great for 
them to surmount, nor any place too retired 
for them to penetrate, in search of their ad- 
mired preacher. 

Nor was the beneficent Saviour of the 

Z world 



90 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



world regardless of their pious esteem. He 
saw them, he was moved with compassion 
towards them, because they w r ere as sheep 
not having a shepherd : multitudes of 
people without a pastor ; a large harvest 
without labourers: motives abundantly 
sufficient to excite compassion in the Son 
of God. 

The situation of those numerous throngs 
of people scattered abroad, without a 
guide, without a guardian; a large flock of 
defenceless sheep, without a single shep- 
herd to defend them from the jaws of the 
infernal wolf ; was truly deplorable : the 
blessed Jesus, therefore, that good Shepherd, 
who came to lay down his life for the sheep, 
was moved with pity towards them ; the 
same pity which brought him from the 
courts of heaven, for the sake of his lost 
and wandering sheep in the desert, now 
brought him to this multitude of people, 
whom he instructed in the doctrines of 
eternal life ; and, with his usual goodness, 
healed all the sick among them. 

Intently devoted to teaching and heal- 
ing the people, our blessed Saviour did 
not seem to notice the day to wear away, 
and that the greatest part of it was already 
spent : but his disciples, too anxious 
about the things of this world, thought 
proper to advise him of it ; as if the Son 
of God wanted any directions from man. 
The day, said his disciples, is now far 
advanced, and the place a solitary desert, 
where neither food nor lodging; can be 
procured : it would therefore be conve- 
nient to dismiss the people, that they may 
repair to the towns or villages on the bor- 
ders of the wilderness, and provide them- 
selves with food and lodging ; for they have 
nothing to eat. 

But our Lord prevented that trouble, 
by telling them there was no necessity for 
sending the people away to procure vic- 



tuals for themselves, as they might satisfy 
the hunger of the multitude by giving them 
to eat. And at the same time, to prove 
what opinion his disciples entertained of 
his power, addressed himself to Philip, who 
was well acquainted with the country, and 
said, Whence shall we buy bread that these 
may eat? 

Philip, astonished at the seeming im- 
possibility of procuring a supply for so 
great a multitude, with the small sum of 
money which he knew was their all, and 
forgetting the extent of his Master's power, 
answered, Two hundred pennyworth of bread 
is not sufficient for them, that every one of them 
may take a little, John vi. 7- 

Our blessed Saviour might now have 
put the same question to Philip that he did 
on another occasion : Have I been so long- 
time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, 
Philip? John xiv. 9- Hast thou beheld so 
many miracles, and art still ignorant that I 
can supply food, not only for this people, 
but for all the sons of men, and for the 
cattle upon a thousand hills ? 

But he contented himself with answer- 
ing, Give ye them to eat. The twelve, not 
yet comprehending the design of their 
Master, repeated the objection of Philip ; 
but added, that they were willing to ex- 
pend their whole stock, in order to procure 
as large a supply as possible. Shall we go, 
said they, and buy two hundred pennyworth of 
bread, that they may eat ? 

But this was by no means the design of 
their great Master, who, instead of making 
a direct answer to their question, asked 
them, How many loaves have ye ? How 
much provision can be found among this 
multitude ? Go and see. 

The disciples obeyed the command of 
their Master ; and Andrew soon returned, 
to inform him that the whole stock 
amounted to no more than five barley- 
loaves, 



AND SAVIOUR, 

loaves, and two small fishes ; a quantity so 
inconsiderable, that they scarcely deserved 
notice. What are they, said his disciples, 
among so many? What, indeed, would they 
have been among such a multitude of peo- 
ple, if they had not been distributed by the 
creating hand of the Son of God I 

Jesus, notwithstanding the smallness 
of the number, ordered them to be 
brought to him, and immediately com- 
manded the multitude to sit down on the 
grass, with which the place abounded, di- 
recting his disciples at the same time to 
range them in a regular order, by hun- 
dreds and fifties in a company, each com- 
pany forming a long square, containing a 
hundred in rank, and fifty in file, that 
the number might be more easily ascer- 
tained, and the people more regularly 
served. 

In obedience to his command, the peo- 
ple sat down in the manner the}" were or- 
dered, big with the expectation of what 
this uncommon preparation portended : 
while the great Master of the banquet stood 
ready to supply the necessities of all his 
guests ; a banquet where, though they had 
no canopy but the azure sky, no table but 
the verdant turf, where their food was only 
coarse barley-bread and dried fishes, and 
their drink only water from a bubbling 
fountain, }*et displayed more real grandeur, 
by the presence of the divine Master of it, 
than the royal feast of gorgeous Ahasuerus, 
or the splendid entertainment of the im- 
perious Nebuchadnezzar. 

The multitude being; seated, Jesus took 
the loaves and fishes into his hands, in the 
sight of all the people, that they might be 
convinced of the small quantity of pro- 
visions that were then before them, and 
that they could only expect to be fed by 
his supernatural power. But that hand, 
which had constantly sustained nature, 



JESUS CHRIST. 91 

could now easily multiply these five loaves 
and two fishes; for, as the Psalmist ele- 
gantly observes, He opencth his hand, and 
frfleth all things living with plenteausness. 
Accordingly, he looked up to heaven, re- 
turned thanks to God, the liberal giver of 
all good things, for his infinite beneficence 
in furnishing food for all flesh, and for the 
power he had conferred on him of relieving 
mankind by his miracles, particularly for 
that he was about to work. This done, he 
blessed them ; and so peculiarly efficacious 
was his blessing, that these five barley- 
loaves and two fishes were multiplied into 
a quantity sufficient to supply the wants 
of five thousand men, besides women and 
children, who, on the most favourable sup- 
position, must amount to an equal number. 
And Jesus took the loaves ; and when he had 
given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and 
the disciples to them that zvere set dozen ; and 
likezcise of the fishes, as much as they would, 
John vi. 11. 

Thus did the compassionate and power- 
ful Redeemer feed at least ten thousand 
people with five barley-loaves and two small 
fishes, giving a magnificent proof both of 
his power and goodness. For after all had 
eaten to satiety, they took up twelve bas- 
kets full of the broken pieces : a much lar- 
ger quantity than was at first set before our 
Lord to divide. 

Miraculous work ! But what is too hard 
for God? what is impossible to Omnipo- 
tence? Strange perverseness of the sons of 
men, that after such manifestations of Al- 
mighty power, they should incredulously 
doubt, or impiously distrust, the providence 
and fatherly care of this Sovereign, this in- 
finitely gracious Being, into whose hands 
the Father hath delivered this world, and 
all its concerns ! We are his by right of 
creation and redemption, and him we are 
bound to serve : and blessed are the}" who 

are 



92 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



are faithful to so kind a Master, and are 
obedient to so compassionate a Father. 

The literal account of this miracle, as 
recorded by the several evangelists, is very 
plain, as well as circumstantial : and it is 
remarkable, that the circumstances of the 
place and time tended to magnify its great- 
ness. The place was a desert, where there 
was no possibility of procuring any suste- 
nance. Had he done this mighty work in 
any of the towns or villages round about, 
the Pharisees in those days, and the in- 
fidels of ours, might have objected, that he 
had received secretly some supplies ; but 
this, in the present case, was impossible. 
The time was the , evening ; the people 
had been all the clay fasting, and conse- 
quently were ready for their meal : had it 
been done in the morning, they might 
have said, either that the people had been 
just refreshed, or were not hungry; conse- 
quently the miracle not great. But the 
time and place wholly removed all objec- 
tions of this kind, and proved, beyond all 
possibility of doubt, that God can furnish a 
table in the wilderness. 

We should learn from this great miracle 
to remember, That it is the Lord who 
every year blesses mankind with plentiful 
supplies of every thing necessary; it is this 
Lord who, agreeably to the emphatical 
words of David, visiteth the earth and bless- 
eth it; who maketh it very plenteous ; who 
watereth her furrows, and sendeth rain into 
the little valleys thereof; who maketh it soft 
with showers, and blesseth the increase of it; 
who crowneth the year with his goodness, 
while his clouds drop fatness, making the 
valleys stand so thick with corn that they 
laugh and sing; whose beneficent hand 
and liberal bounty call for all their praise, 
and claim all their thankfulness. For 
however inattentively we may behold this 
mighty work of Omnipotence, it is no less 



a mercy, that our Lord should every day 
support and feed the whole race of man- 
kind, and all the creatures of his hand, 
than that Christ should feed five thousand 
with five loaves and two fishes ; for what 
proportion do five thousand bear to those 
myriads of men, who are daily fed from 
the fruits of the earth ? the increase of 
which is equally wonderful with the in- 
crease of the bread and loaves by the 
blessing of Jesus ! How small is the seed 
sown, when compared with the produce! 
It is carried out in handfuls, and brought 
home in sheaves ; and who can tell by 
what secret operations this wonderful effect 
is wrought? Nature is equally wonderful 
in all her works, as in this particular ; and 
the Divinity, to an attentive observer, 
equally visible in these regular produc- 
tions, as in miraculous supplies afforded ; 
equally seen in the wine produced from 
the moisture of the earth, filtrated through 
the branches of the vine, as in that in- 
stantaneously made from water at the 
marriage of Cana ; equally seen in the 
corn gradually ripened, and made into 
bread for the support of mankind, as in 
the bread miraculously blessed to the sup- 
port of the five thousand. But the con- 
stant repetition of these surprising opera- 
tions renders them common, and, being 
common, they are less observed. Our 
heavenly Father, therefore, condescends 
to deviate from the common order of 
things, to rouse and awaken our attention. 
But if we are dead and utterly inattentive 
to the works of God in nature, where we 
see the divine magnificence and bounty so 
visibly, so richly displayed, there is too 
much reason to fear, that outward mira- 
cles will not now awaken us. We are, 
however, apt to deceive ourselves in 
this respect, and are often led to con- 
clude, that had we been present at so 

stupendous 



AND SAVIOUR, 

stupendous a miracle, as that we are con- 
templating, we should have adored the di- 
vine hand that wrought it, and never have 
forsaken the blessed Jesus. But, alas ! if 
all the displays of God's divine power in 
the works of creation, if all the evidences 
of his omnipotence, if the continual sup- 
plies of his bounty, and the most legible 
characters of his adorable love, written 
upon all the creatures of his hand, will not 
produce in us grateful and rejoicing hearts 
to him, there is great reason to fear, that, 
had we seen the blessed Jesus feed five 
thousand men with five barley-loaves and 
two small fishes, had we ourselves been par- 
takers of this miraculous banquet, we should 
have acted like many who really enjoyed 
these privileges, and have turned away at 
some of his hard sayings, and walked no more, 
with him. 

But to return. The people, when they 
had seen the Saviour of the world perform 
so stupendous a miracle, were astonished 
above measure ; and, in the height of their 
transport, proposed to take Jesus by force, 
and make him a king, concluding, that he 
must then assume the title of the Mes- 
siah, whose coming they had so long- 
earnestly expected, and under whose reign 
they expected all kinds of temporal feli- 
cities. 

But our Lord, well knowing the inten- 
tions of the multitude, and the inclinations 
of his disciples to second them, ordered 
the latter to repair immediately to their 
boat, and sail for Bethsaida, while he sent 
away the multitude. They would, it seems, 
gladly have detained the people, with 
whom they fully agreed in sentiments ; and 
even lingered till he constrained them to 
get into the boat ; so fully were they still 
possessed, that their Master was to take 
the reins of government, and become a 
powerful prince over the house of Jacob. | 



JESUS CHRIST. 93 

The people suffered the disciples to de- 
part without the least remorse, as they saw 
that Jesus did not go with them. 

Perhaps they imagined he was sending 
them away, to provide such things as they 
had need of. Nor did they refuse to dis- 
perse when he commanded them, purpos- 
ing to return in the morning, as we find 
they actually did. 

Having thus sent the disciples and the 
multitude away, Jesus repaired himself to 
the summit of a mountain, spending the 
evening in heavenly contemplations, and 
ardent prayers to his almighty Father. 

But the disciples, meeting with a con- 
trary wind, could not continue their course 
to Bethsaida, which lay about two leagues 
to the northward of the desert mountain 
where the multitude were miraculously 
fed. They, however, did all in their power 
to land as near that city as possible, but 
were tossed up and down all the night by 
the tempest; so that in the fourth watch, 
or between three and six o'clock in the 
morning, they were not above a league from 
the shore. 

Their divine Master beheld from the 
mountain their distressed situation ; but 
they were ignorant of his presence, though 
he was now coming to their relief. From 
hence we should learn, when the stormy 
billows of affliction assault and seem ready 
to overwhelm us, not to despair of relief; 
for he who beholds every particular of our 
distress hath not forgotten to be gracious, 
but will surely come to our help, and work 
our deliverance in a manner altogether un- 
expected. He often calms the storm of 
affliction that surrounds us, and commands 
the bellowing waves of trouble to subside. 
Human wisdom, indeed, is often at a loss ; 
it can discover no hopes of deliverance, nor 
see any way to escape ; but the Almighty can 
easily effect the one, or point out the other. 

A a Such 



94 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Such was the state of the disciples ; they 
were tossed by boisterous waves, and op- 
posed in their course by the rapid current 
of the wind, so that all hopes of reaching 
the place intended were vanished ; when, 
behold, their heavenly Master, to assist 
them in this distressful situation, comes to 
them, walking on the foaming surface of 
the sea. Their Lord's approach filled them 
with astonishment; they took him for an 
apparition, and shrieked for fear. Their 
terrors were, however, soon removed ; their 
great and affectionate Master talked to 
them, with the sound of whose voice they 
were perfectly acquainted. Be of gcod 
cheer, said the blessed Jesus ; it is I, be not 
afraid. 

Peter, a man of a warm and forward 
temper, beholding Jesus walking on the 
sea, was exceedingly amazed, and conceived 
the strongest desire of being enabled to per- 
form so wonderful an action. 

Accordingly, without the least reflec- 
tion, he immediately begged that his 
Master would bid him come to him on the 
water. He did not doubt but that Jesus 
would gratify his request, as it sufficiently 
intimated that he would readily under- 
take any thing, however difficult, at the 
command of his Saviour. But it appear- 
ed, that his faith was too weak to support 
him to that height of obedience to which 
he would have willingly soared. To con- 
vince this forward disciple of the weakness 
of his faith, and render him more diffident 
of his own strength, our blessed Saviour 
granted Peter his request. He ordered him 
to come to him upon the water. 

Peter joyfully obeyed his divine Master; 
he left the boat, and walked on the surface 
of the sea. But the wind increasing, made 
a dreadful noise, and the boisterous waves 
at the same time threatened every moment 
to overwhelm him. His faith now stag- 



gered, his presence of mind forsook him ; 
he forgot that his Saviour was at his hand ; 
and in proportion as his faith decreased, 
the waters yielded, and he sunk. In this 
extremity he looked around for his Master ; 
and, on the very brink of being swallowed 
up, cried, Lord, save me! His cry was not 
disregarded by his compassionate Saviour ; 
he stretched forth his hand and caught him, and 
said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore 
didst thou doubt ? 

Peter was convinced, before he left the 
ship, that it was Jesus who was coming to 
them on the water ; nor did he even doubt 
it when he was sinking, because he then 
implored his assistance. But when he 
found the storm increase, and the billows 
rage more horribly than before, his fears 
suggested, that either his Master w T ould be 
unable or unwilling to support him amidst 
the frightful blasts of the tempest. 

His fears were therefore both unreason- 
able and culpable ; unreasonable, because 
the same power, that had enabled him to 
walk on the surface of the deep, was abun- 
dantly sufficient to support him there, not- 
withstanding all the horrors of the storm ; 
culpable, because he considered his Mas- 
ter as unable to preserve him, or that he 
paid no regard to his promise; for Jesus 
had virtually promised him his assistance 
when he granted his petition. This cir- 
cumstance should teach us not to be pre- 
sumptuous and self-sufficient ; not to rush 
on dangers, and fly in the face of opposi- 
tion, unless there be a necessity for so doing. 
We should never refuse to undertake any 
action, however difficult, when the cause of 
Christ calls upon us ; or abandon the paths 
of virtue from a fear of the resentment of 
the children of this world : but we should, 
at the same time, be careful not to go far- 
ther than necessity obliges us, lest, like 
Peter, we repent our own temerity. 

This 



AND SAVIOUR, 

This miracle alarmed the disciples, for 
though they had so very lately seen the 
miracle of the five loaves, they did not seem 
to have before formed a proper idea of his 
power ; but being now persuaded that he 
could be no other than the expected Mes- 
siah, they came and worshipped him, saying, 
Of a truth thou art the Son of God, Matt, 
xiv. 33. 

Our Saviour seems to have confirmed 
this miracle by working another; for the 
evangelists tell us, that he had no sooner 
entered the ship, and hushed the horrors 
of the storm, than they arrived at the 
place whither they were going. Then they 
willingly received him into the ship; and im- 
mediately the ship was at the land whither they 
went, John vi. 21. 

When our Lord disembarked, the inha- 
bitants of the neighbouring country ran to 
him, bringing with them all those that 
were sick; and the}*" were all healed. It 
must be remembered, that though Jesus 
ordinarily resided in the neighbourhood of 
Capernaum, yet he had been absent ever 
since his visiting Nazareth ; and therefore 
it is natural to think, that the inhabitants, 
on his return, would not omit the opportu- 
nity of bringing their sick in such prodi- 
gious crowds, that it seems our blessed 
Saviour did not bestow particular attention 
on each of them ; and this was the reason 
for their beseeching him, that they might 
only touch the hem of his garment: and as 
many as touched were made perfectly whole, 
Matt. xiv. 36. 

The virtue of that power by which he 
wrought these things lay not in his gar- 
ments, for then the soldiers who seized 
them at his crucifixion, might have wrought 
the same miracles ; but it was because 
Jesus willed it to be so. It was now 
the acceptable time, the day of salvation, 
foretold by Isaiah, and Christ's power was 



JESUS CHRIST. 

sufficient to remove any distemper what- 
soever. 

It has been mentioned, that our bless* I 
Saviour, after miraculously feeding 1 
people, ordered them to disperse, and re- 
tire to their places of abode. 

The former command they obeyed, but, 
instead of complying with the latter, they 
staid in the neighbourhood of the desert 
mountain ; and observing that no boat had 
come thither since the disciples left their 
Master, they concluded that Jesus still 
continued in that place, anel had no de- 
sign of leaving his attendants. Hence 
they w r ere persuaded, that though Jesus 
had modestly declined the honour of being 
made a king, he would accept it the next 
day ; especially as they might fancy his 
disciples were dispatched to the other side, 
with no other intention than to prepare 
every thing necessary for that purpose. 
Hopes like these animated them to continue 
in this solitary wilderness, and take up 
their lodgings in the caverns of the rocks 
and mountains, notwithstanding their dif- 
acuities were greatly increased by the 
racing of the storm. 

But no sooner did the cheering rays of 
light appear, than the multitude left their 
retreat, and searched for Jesus in every part 
of the mountain, to the summit of which 
they had seen him retire. Finding their 
search in vain, they concluded that he 
must have departed for the other side, in 
some boat belonoino- to Tiberias, which 
had been forced by the storm to take shel- 
ter in a creek at the foot of the mountain. 
Accordingly, they repaired to Capernaum, 
where they found him in the synagogue, 
teaching the people ; and could not help 
asking him, with some surprise, Jxabbi, when 
earnest tliou hither? John vi. 25. 

To this question our Lord replied, that 
the\^ did not seek him because they were 

convinced 



96 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



convinced by his miracles of the truth of 
his mission, but because they hoped to be 
continually fed in the same miraculous 
manner as before. Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the mi- 
racles,but because ye did eat of the loaves, and 
were filed. These are the views which 
induce you to follow me : but ye are en- 
tirely mistaken ; for happiness does not 
consist in the meat that perisheth, nor is it 
that sort of meat ye must expect to receive 
from the Messiah. Mere animal foods, 
which please and delight the body only, 
are not the gifts he came down from hea- 
ven to bestow ; it is the meat that enclureth 
to everlasting life, divine knowledge and 
grace, which, by renewing all the faculties 
of the soul, make it capable of enjoying 
eternal felicity : neither ought ye to follow 
the Son of man with any intention to obtain 
the meat that perisheth, but in the hope 
of obtaining; the meat that endureth to 
everlasting life. Labour not for the meat 
which perisheth, but for that meat which en- 
dureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of 
man shall give unto you ; for him hath God 
the Father sealed, John vi. 27- 

The Jews, who were accustomed to the 
metaphors of meat and drink, as they are 
frequently found in the writings of their 
own prophets, to signify wisdom and know- 
ledge, might easily have understood what 
our blessed Saviour meant by the meat 
enduring to everlasting life. They, hov/ever, 
entirely mistook him ; imagining that he 
spake of some delicious wholesome animal 
food, which would render them immortal, 
and which was only to be procured under 
the government of their great Master. It 
is therefore no wonder that his exhorta- 
tion should so greatly affect them, that 
they asked him what they should do to 
erect the Messiah's kingdom, and obtain 
that excellent meat, which he said God 



had authorized him to give to his fol- 
lowers ? 

The Jews were elated with the prospect 
of the mighty empire the promised Mes- 
siah was to establish, and doubtless ex- 
pected that Jesus would have bidden them 
first to rise against the Romans, vindicate 
their own liberties, and then establish in 
every country, by the terror of fire and 
sword, the authority of that powerful 
Prince so long expected by the Jewish na- 
tion. To convince them, therefore, of 
their mistake, and inform them what God 
really required of them, towards erecting 
the Messiah's kingdom, Jesus told them, 
that they should believe on the person 
sent to them from the God of Jacob: but 
at this answer they were exceedingly 
offended. They were persuaded that he 
could not be the Messiah promised in the 
law and the prophets, who took no care to 
erect a temporal kingdom. And some of 
them, more audacious than the rest, had 
the confidence to tell him, that since he 
assumed the character of the Messiah, and 
required them to believe in him as such, 
it was necessary that he should perform 
greater miracles than either Moses or any 
of the old prophets, if he was desirous of 
convincing them that they ought to be- 
lieve him the long-promised Messiah. 
They said therefore unto him, What sign 
shewest thou then, that we may see, and be- 
lieve thee ? What dost thou work ? Our 
fathers did eat manna in the desert ; as it is 
written, He gave them bread from heaven to 
eat, John vi. 30. 

By extolling the miracle of the manna, 
by calling it bread from heaven, and by 
insinuating that this miracle was wrought 
by Moses, the Jews endeavoured to de- 
preciate both Christ's mission, and his mi- 
racle of the loaves. They considered this 
miracle as a single meal of terrestrial food, 

at 



AND SAVIOUli, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



97 



at which but a few thousands had been 
fed ; whereas Moses had supported the 
whole Jewish nation, during the space of 
forty years in the wilderness, by celestial 
food. To this objection the blessed Jesus 
replied, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses 
gave you not that bread from heaven ; but my 
Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 
For the bread of God is he which cometh 
down from heaven, and giveth life unto the 
world, John vi. 32, 33. Moses did not give 
you the manna that fell around the camp 
in the wilderness, nor did it descend from 
heaven; it was formed in the regions of the 
air, by the omnipotent hand of the God of 
Jacob. But by the miracle of the loaves, 
my heavenly Father hath typified the true, 
the spiritual, the heavenly bread, which he 
himself giveth to the sons of men, and of 
which the manna was only a symbolic re- 
presentation : the food that sustained the 
l sraelites in the wilderness, was sufficient 
only for a single nation; but this, for all the 
children of men. 

Many of the Jews, who listened with 
pleasure to his doctrine, and having heard 
him describe the properties of the celestial 
bread, were animated with an earnest de- 
sire of being always fed with it. Lord, said 
they, evermore give us this bread: to which 
the blessed Jesus answered, I am the bread 
of life. He that cometh to me shall never hun- 
ger; and he that believeth on me shall never 
thirst, John vi. 35. 

Having made this answer to those who 
listened attentively to his doctrine, he turned 
himself to such as had heard him with 
prejudice, and took every advantage of 
wresting his words. You ask me, says he, 
to shew you a sign, that ye may see and 
believe me to be the true Messiah. Surely 
you have seen it : you have seen my cha- 
racter and mission in the many miracles I 
have performed; miracles abundantly suffi- 



cient to convince you that I am really the 
Messiah, so often promised by the ancient 
prophets, so long expected by the whole 
Jewish nation. But, notwithstanding all 
these proofs, your hearts are still hardened : 
you expect a temporal prince, who shall 
raise the Jewish kingdom above all the 
empires of the earth ; and because 1 do 
not affect the authority and pomp of an 
earthly monarch, you reject me as an im- 
postor. Your infidelity therefore does not 
proceed from want of evidence, as you 
vainly pretend, but from the perverseness 
of your own dispositions, which may per- 
haps in time be overcome ; for all those 
that the Father giveth me, however obsti- 
nate they may be for a season, will at last 
believe on the Son of God. Nor will 1 
ever reject any that come to me, however 
low their circumstances may be, however 
vile they may appear in their own eyes, or 
however greatly their violence against my 
doctrines may have been exerted. I came 
down from heaven, not to act according to 
the common method of human passions, 
which excite men to return evil for evil, 
but to bear with them ; to try all possible 
means to bring them to repentance ; and 
to lead them in the strait paths of righte- 
ousness, which terminate at the mansions 
of the heavenly Canaan. 

It is the fixed will of my Father to be- 
stow eternal life on all who truly believe in 
me; and therefore I will raise them up at 
the last day. 

As the prospect of the greatest part of 
the Jews extended no farther than tem- 
poral privileges and advantages, it is no 
wonder that they were offended at this 
doctrine ; especially at his affirming that 
he was the bread of life, and that he came 
down from heaven. Was not this man. 
said the3 r , born into the world like other 
mortals? And are we not acquainted with 

B b his 



98 



THE LIFE OF OU 



R BLESSED LORD 



his parents ? Flow then can he pretend to 
come down from heaven. 

But these degrading thoughts could not 
escape the censure of him to whom nothing 
is a secret You need not, said the blessed 
Jesus, object to mj r birth, and the mean- 
ness of my relations, nor consider them 
as inconsistent with my heavenly extrac- 
tion. For while you believe your teach- 
ers, who have so shamefully corrupted the 
oracles of Omnipotence, and filled your 
minds with the vain expectation of a tem- 
poral kingdom, you cannot believe on me. 
No man can believe on the Son of God, 
unless he be taught and assisted by the 
Father. You need not be surprised at this ; 
for however you may imagine that all 
men, at the appearance of the Messiah, 
will flock to him with great cheerfulness, 
and become the willing subjects of his 
kingdom, without any aid from the Floly 
Spirit, the prophets plainly foretold the 
contrary: for they promise that men shall 
enjoy the teaching of the Father, in a far 
more eminent manner during the Messiah's 
kingdom, than under any preceding dis- 
pensation ; consequently, persuasion, and 
the most earnest persuasion too, is neces- 
sary. You are not to understand, that by 
being taught of God, you are to see with 
your bodily eyes, the invisible Jehovah, 
(because that privilege is confined to the 
Son alone,) but that you are to be taught 
by the Spirit of God whatever is re- 
quisite to your eternal interest, in and by 
me, who am the way, the truth, and the 
life. 

Flaving thus asserted the dignity of his 
mission, and demonstrated that it really 
belonged to him, the blessed Jesus ex- 
amined the comparison between himself, 
considered as the bread from heaven, and 
the manna which Moses provided for their 
fathers in the wilderness. The manna, 



said he, which your fathers ate in the de- 
sert, could not preserve them from tempo- 
ral death : but the bread which came down 
from heaven will render men eternally 
happy. I am the living bread which came 
down from heaven : if any man eat of this 
bread, he shall live for ever. And the bread 
that I zdll give is my flesh, which I will give 
for the life of the world, John vi. 51. 

Though the divine Teacher, on this oc- 
casion, made use of no other expressions 
than what the Jews had been accustomed 
to interpret in a figurative sense; j^et so 
great was their perverseness, that they con- 
sidered them as spoken literally, and were 
astonished beyond measure at what he 
could mean, by saying he would give them 
his flesh to eat. Jesus, however, knowing 
how unreasonable his hearers were, did not 
proceed to explain himself more particu- 
larly at this time. But persisting in the 
same figurative manner of expression, he 
repeated and affirmed more earnestly what 
he had before asserted. Except, said he, 
ye be entirely united to me by a hearty 
belief and practice of my doctrine, par- 
take of the merit of that sacrifice that I 
shall offer for the sins of the world, con- 
tinue in the enjoyment of my religion, and 
receive spiritual nourishment in those 
means of grace which 1 shall purchase for 
you by my death, ye can never enter the 
happy mansions of eternity. JHioso eateth 
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal 
life ; and I will raise him up at the last day. 
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is 
drink indeed, John vi. 54, 55. 

This is the bread which came down 
from heaven; a kind of bread infinitely 
superior to that of manna, both in its na- 
ture and efficacy. It is di tic rent in its na- 
ture from manna, because it is not to be 
eaten as your fathers did that food in the 
wilderness ; they ate manna, and are dead. 

It 



AND SAVIOUR, 

It is different in its effect, because he that 
cateth of this bread shall live for ever. 

These particulars, Jesus spake in the 
hearing of all the people, who attended 
the public worship in the synagogue of 
Capernaum ; and though most of the me- 
taphors were very easy to be understood, 
yet they did not comprehend what he meant 
by eating his flesh, and drinking his blood: a 
thing not only prohibited by the law of 
Moses, but also repugnant to the customs 
of all civilized nations. 

Many, therefore, who had followed him, 
considered it as inconsistent and absolutely 
absurd. But Jesus answered, Are you 
offended, because I told you my flesh is 
bread; that it came down from heaven; 
and that you must, in order to have eternal 
life, eat my flesh and drink my blood ? 
But what if ye shall see the Son of man 
ascend up bodily to heaven, from whence 
he was sent by his heavenly Father? You 
will then surely be persuaded that I really 
came from heaven ; and at the same time 
be convinced that you cannot eat my flesh 
in a corporeal manner. 

I never meant that you should under- 
stand the expression literally; my flesh in 
that case would be of no advantage to the 
children of men. The metaphor was only 
used to indicate, that you must believe in 
the doctrines which I preach ; for to reveal 
these, I took upon me the vail of flesh, and 
assumed the nature of man. It is, there- 
fore, more properly my Spirit that confers 
this life on the human race, and renders 
them meet for immortal glory. 

My doctrine may perhaps be ineffectual 
to some of you, because ye are desirous of 
perverting it, and from thence to form a 
pretence for forsaking me. I well know 
the secret recesses of every heart; and there- 
fore told you, that no man can believe on 
me, except it be given him of my Father. 



JESUS CHRIST. 99 

The self-sufficient, self-righteous Jews, 
were so offended at this discourse, that 
many of them, who had hitherto been our 
Saviour's disciples, went out of the syna- 
gogue, and never came more to hear him. 
They found that all their pleasing views of 
worldly grandeur, and an extensive king- 
dom, could have nothing more than an 
ideal foundation, if they acknowledged 
Jesus to be the Messiah. And as they 
were unwilling to abandon all their favour- 
ite hopes of power, they refused to own him 
for the great Redeemer of Israel they had 
so long expected. 

When the Jews were departed, Jesus 
turned himself to his disciples, and with a 
look of ineffable sweetness said to them, 
Will ye also go away ? To this Peter an- 
swered, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou 
hast the words of eternal life. And zee believe 
and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the 
Son of' the living God, John vi. 68, 69- 

Peter, in this reply, alluded to our Lord's 
declaration of himself, in which he says, 
that he was the bread of life — founding; his 
faith in him as the Messiah. 

But Jesus, to convince them that he was 
not ignorant of the most secret thoughts 
of the heart, nor afraid that his enemies 
should be spectators of his most retired 
actions, told him, that one of the twelve 
was a wicked man, and would be guilty of 
the vilest action. The prediction of Jesus 
was punctually verified, when Judas Isca- 
riot, one of the twelve chosen disciples, 
basely betrayed his great Lord and Master. 

CHAP. XV. 

Pharisaical Superstition severely reprimanded 
— The great Redeemer continues to display 
his Power and Benevolence in the Relief 
of several Objects of Affliction. — Guards 
his Disciples against the prevailing Errors 

and 



100 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



and Fallacies of the Scribes and Pharisees. 
— Proceeds on the Works of his heavenly 
Father. 

HE season of the grand Passover ap- 
proaching, Jesus went up to Jeru- 
salem, to attend that solemnity. But the 
Jews being offended at his discourse in the 
synagogue of Capernaum, made an attempt 
upon his life. Our Lord, therefore, find- 
ing it impossible to remain at Jerusalem in 
safety, departed from that city and retired 
into Galilee. 

The Pharisees were sensible they could 
not perpetrate their malicious designs upon 
him on that occasion ; they therefore fol- 
lowed him, hoping to find something by 
which they might accuse him ; and at 
length ventured to attack him for permit- 
ting; his disciples to eat with unwashed 
hands, because, in so doing, they trans- 
gressed the tradition of the elders. 

Moses had, indeed, required external 
cleanness as a part of their religion ; but it 
was only to signify how careful the ser- 
vants of the Almighty should be to purify 
themselves from all uncleanness, both of 
flesh and spirit. These ceremonial institu- 
tions were, in process of time, prodigiously 
multiplied; and the Pharisees, who pre- 
tended to observe every tittle of the law, 
considered it as a notorious offence to eat 
bread with unwashed hands, though, at 
the same time, they suffered the more 
weighty precepts of the law to be neglected 
and forgotten. 

To expose the absurdity of such super- 
stitious customs, our Saviour applied to 
them the words of the prophet Isaiah, This 
people honoureth me with their lips, but their 
heart is far from me. Addin g, that all their 
worship was vain, and displeasing to the 
Almighty, while they praised themselves, 
and imposed upon others the frivolous 



precepts of man's invention, and at the 
same time neglected the eternal rules of 
righteousness; and to remove all objec- 
tions that might be brought against this 
imputation of gross profaneness in the Pha- 
risees, he supported it by a very remarkable 
instance. 

God, said the Saviour of the world, hath 
commanded children to honour their pa- 
rents, and to maintain them when reduced 
to poverty by sickness, age, or misfortunes ; 
promising life to such as obey this precept, 
and threatening death to those who disre- 
gard it. But notwithstanding the peremp- 
tory commandment of Omnipotence, you 
teach, that it is a more sacred duty to en- 
rich the temple than to nourish their pa- 
rents, reduced to the utmost necessity ; pre- 
tending, that what is offered to the great 
Parent of the universe, is much better be- 
stowed than what is given to the support of 
our earthly parents ; making the honour 
of God absolutely different from the hap- 
piness of his creatures. Nay, ye teach, 
that it is no breach of the commandment 
for a man to suffer his parents to perish, 
provided he has given what ought to nourish 
them to the temple at Jerusalem. Thus 
have ye concealed, under the cloak of piety, 
the most horrid, the most unnatural crime, 
any person can commit. 

Having thus reproved the Pharisees, he 
called the multitude to him, and desired 
them to reflect on the absurdity of the pre- 
cepts inculcated by the Scribes. These 
hypocrites, said he, solicitous about trifles, 
neglect the great duties of morality, which 
are of eternal obligation. They shudder 
with horror at unwashed hands, but are 
perfectly easy under the guilt of a polluted 
conscience, though they must be sensible, 
that not that which goeth into the month de- 
fileth a man ; but that which cometh out of 
the mouth, this defileth a man, Matt. xv. 11. 

The 




AND SAVIOUR, 

The haughty Pharisees were highly 
offended at his speaking in a degrading 
manner of their traditions. And the 
apostles, who would gladly have recon- 
ciled their Master and the Pharisees, in- 
sinuated to Jesus that he ought to have 
acted in another manner. To which our 
Saviour answered, Every plant, which my 
heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be 
rooted up, Matt. xv. 13. As if he had said, 
You have no cause to fear their anger, as 
both they and their doctrine shall perish 
together, for neither of them came from 
God. Adding, Let them alone: they be 
blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind 
lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch, 
Matt. xv. 14. 

His disciples, not fully comprehending 
this doctrine, desired their Master to ex- 
plain it. This our Saviour complied with, 
and shewed them, that meats being of a 
corporeal nature, could not defile the mind 
of man, or render him polluted in the sight 
of the Almighty, unless they were used to 
excess, or in opposition to the command- 
ment of God ; and even then the pollu- 
tion arose from the man, and not from the 
meat. But, on the contrary, that which 
proceedeth out of the mouth of a man 
comes from his heart, and really polluteth 
his mind. 

These doctrines of truth could not fail 
of irritating the Pharisees, as they tended 
to strip them of the mask with which they 
concealed their deformity, and rendered 
themselves so venerable in the eyes of the 
vulgar; and therefore their plots were le- 
velled against his reputation and life. 

Jesus, to avoid their malice, retired to 
the very borders of Palestine, to the coast 
of those two celebrated Gentile cities, Tyre 
and Sidon, purposing there to conceal him- 
self for a time : but he could not be hid. 
It was as impossible for the Sun of righ- 



JESUS Gil ill ST. 101 

tcousness to be concealed, where he came 
with his healing wings and message of 
peace, as it is for the sun in the firmament 
when he riseth in all his glory, as a bride- 
groom cometh out of his chamber, and as a 
giant rejoiceth to run his course. Tor a cer- 
tain woman of Canaan, having heard of 
him, determined to implore his assistance 
She was, indeed, one of the most abject 
sort of Gentiles, a Canaanite, one of that 
detested race with which the Jews would 
have no dealing, nor even conversation ; 
but notwithstanding all these discouragino- 
circumstances, she threw herself, as an 
humble petitioner, on the never-failing 
mercies of the Son of God. Strong ne- 
cessity urged her on ; and insuperable dis- 
tress caused her to be importunate. Alas ! 
unhappy parent ! her only daughter, her 
beloved child, had an unclean spirit, zcas 
grievously vexed with a devil. 

When her case was so urgent, and her 
woes so poignant, who can wonder that 
she was so importunate, and would take no 
refusal from this divine Person, who, she 
knew, was able to deliver her? Accord- 
ing]}^ she came; she fell at his feet; she 
besought him ; she cried, saying, Have 
mercy on me, 0 Lord, thou Son of David, 
have mercy. I plead no merits ; as a 
worthless suffering wretch, I entreat only 
the bowels of thy mercy ; I entreat it, for 
I believe thee to be the Son of David, the 
promised Messiah, the much desired Sa- 
viour of the world ; have mercy on me, 
for the case of my child and her distresses 
are my own : My daughter is grievously 
vexed zcitli a devil, Matt. xv. 2'2. 

Is it not at the first view astonishing that 
such a petitioner should be apparently re- 
jected, and that by a bountiful and merci- 
ful Redeemer, who kindly invited all that 
were heavjr laden to come to him ? who 
promised never to cast out any that would 

C c come, 



102 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



come, and whose business it was to go about 
doing good ? 

We, however, find he answered this wo- 
man not a word ; he did not, in appear- 
ance, take the least notice, either of her 
or her distress. But this silence did not 
intimidate her; she still cried, she still be- 
sought, she still importunately pressed her 
petition ; so that the very disciples were 
moved with her cries, and became her ad- 
vocates. They themselves, though Jews, 
besought their Master to dismiss this peti- 
tioner; to grant her requests, and to send 
her away. 

But Jesus soon silenced them, by an 
answer agreeable to their own prejudices ; 
T am not sent, said he, but unto the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel. To this the disciples 
readily assented ; and, as they had an high 
opinion of the Jews' prerogative, were so 
well satisfied with the answer, that we hear 
them pleading no more for this lost, this 
miserable Gentile. 

But this soothed not her griefs : it was 
her own cause ; and what is immediately 
our own concern, animates us to the most 
zealous application. Somewhat encou- 
raged that she was the subject of discourse 
between our Lord and his disciples, she 
ventured to approach the Saviour of the 
world, though she well knew that custom 
actually forbade such an intercourse ; yet 
she came, she worshipped this Son of Da- 
vid, she confessed again his divinity, and 
prayed, saying, Lord, help me ! 

The compassionate Saviour now con- 
descended to speak to her, but with words 
seemingly sufficient to have discouraged 
every farther attempt ; nay, to have filled 
her with bitter dislike to his person, though 
she had conceived such high and noble 
notions of his mercy and favour : It is not 
meet, said he, to take the children's bread, 
and to cast it to the dogs, Matt. xv. 26. It 



is not justice to deprive the Jews, who are 
the children of the covenant, the descen- 
dants of Abraham, of any part of those 
blessings which I came into the world to 
bestow, especially to you, who are aliens 
and strangers from the commonwealth of 
Israel. 

This answer, though seemingly severe, 
could not shake her humility, nor over- 
come her patience ; she meekly answered, 
Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs 
which fall from their master s table, Matt, 
xv. 27- Let me enjoy that kindness which 
the dogs of any family are not denied : 
from the plenty of miraculous cures, which 
thou bestowest on the Jews, drop this one 
to me, who am a poor distressed heathen ; 
for they will suffer no greater loss by it, 
than the children of a family do by the 
crumbs which are cast to the dogs. 

Our Lord having put the woman's faith 
to a very severe trial, and well knowing 
that she possessed a just notion of his pow T er 
and goodness, as well as of her own un- 
worthiness, wrought with pleasure the cure 
she solicited in behalf of her daughter; 
and, at the same time, gave her faith the 
praise it so justly deserved. Oh! woman, 
great is thy faith : be it unto thee even as thou 
wilt. And her daughter was made whole from 
that very hour, Matt. xv. 28. 

After performing this miracle, Jesus re- 
turned to the sea of Galilee, through the 
region of Decapolis. In this country a 
man was brought to him who was deaf, 
and had an impediment in his speech. 
Objects in distress were always treated with 
benevolence by the holy Jesus: but as the 
people now thronged about him, in ex- 
pectation that he would soon establish his 
kingdom, he thought proper to take the 
man, with his relations, aside from the 
multitude ; after which he put his fingers 
in his ears, and touched his tongue, that 

the 



AND SAVIOUR, 

the deaf man, who could not be instructed 
by language, might know from whence all 
his benefits flowed. He then looked up to 
heaven, he sighed, and said unto him, Ephpha- 
tha, that is, Be opened. And straightway 
his ears were opened, and the string of his 
tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And 
he charged them that they should tell no man, 
Mark vii. 34, 35, 36. 

But, notwithstanding they were enjoined 
to secresy, the man, or his relations, pub- 
lished it in every part of the country, 
doubtless thinking they could not be too 
lavish in the praises of so great a bene- 
factor; especially as the modesty with 
which he had performed the cure, abun- 
dantly demonstrated that his sole view was 
the benefit of the human race. 

This rumour gathered the multitude 
round him in Decapolis : for the fame of 
his miracles was extended to every corner 
of the countiy. He, therefore, to avoid 
the prodigious crowds of people, retired 
into a desert mountain, near the sea of 
Galilee. But the solitary retreats of the 
wilderness were unable to conceal the be- 
neficent Saviour of the human race. They 
soon discovered his retreat, and brought 
to him from all quarters the sick, the lame, 
the dumb, the blind, and the maimed. 
The sight of so many objects in distress so 
excited the compassion of the Son of God, 
that he graciously released them from 
all their complaints. Miracles like these 
could not fail of astonishing the spectators, 
especially those performed upon the dumb; 
for it must be remembered, that he not 
only conferred on those the faculty of hear- 
ing, and pronouncing articulate sounds, 
but conveyed at once into their minds the 
whole language of their country ; thev 
were instantly acquainted with the words 
it contained, their significations, their 
forms, their powers, and their uses, at 



JESUS CHRIST. 103 

the same time they enjoyed the habit of 
speaking it both fluently and copiously. 
This was surely enough to demonstrate to 
the most stupid, that such works could 
have been effected by nothing less than 
infinite power. The multitude wondered, 
when they saw the dumb to speak, the maim< d 
to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to 
see ; and they glorified the God of Israel, 
Matt. xv. 31. 

The various works performed by the 
blessed Redeemer detained the multitude 
in the desert with him three days, during 
which time they consumed all the pro- 
visions they had brought into this solitary 
place. But Jesus would not send them 
away fasting, lest any who had followed 
him so far from their habitation should 
faint in their return. Accordingly he 
again exerted his almighty power, to feed 
the multitude a second time in the wilder- 
ness. 

It is highly worthy of our notice, the 
great wisdom of our blessed Saviour, in 
choosing to spend so great a part of the 
time he executed his public ministry, in 
the wilderness, and in solitary places. He 
did not seek the applauses of men, but 
the eternal salvation of their souls ; and 
therefore often delivered his doctrines in 
the silent retreats thereof : in consequence 
of which he was followed by such only as 
had dispositions adapted for profiting by his 
instructions. It could not be supposed 
that many of different dispositions would 
accompany him into solitudes, where they 
were to sustain the inconveniences of hun- 
ger for several days successively, and be at 
the same time exposed to all the incle- 
mencies of the weather. Those only who 
were desirous of instruction could, there- 
fore, be expected to follow the blessed 
Jesus into those retired parts : and on 
those, doubtless, his doctrine distilled like 

dew. 



104 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



dew, and like the small rain upon the ten- 
der herb. Happy mortals ! who thus ex- 
changed the shallow and frothy streams of 
folly, for the deep and salutary rivers of 
eternal wisdom ; who left the noise and 
bustle of a covetous bigoted people, for 
the calm instructions of the Son of God ; 
and exchanged the perishing bread of this 
world for the bread of life, the bread that 
came down from heaven! 

After feeding the multitude miracu- 
lously, Jesus retired into a district, called 
Dalmanutha, a part of the territory of 
Magdala. Flere he was visited by the 
Pharisees, who, having heard that he had 
a second time fed the multitude miracu- 
lously, w r ere fearful that the common peo- 
ple would acknowledge him for the Mes- 
siah : and therefore determined openly and 
publicly to confute his pretentions to that 
character. 

In order to do this, they boldly de- 
manded of him a sign from heaven ; for 
it must be remembered, that the Jews ex- 
pected the Messiah would make his first 
public appearance in the clouds of heaven, 
and in a glorious manner establish a tem- 
poral kingdom. This opinion was founded 
on the following prophecy of Daniel, 
which they understood literally : I saw in 
the night visions, and, behold, one like the 
Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, 
and came to the Ancient of days, and they 
brought him near before him. And there was 
given him dominion, and glory, and a king- 
dom, that all people, nations, and languages, 
should serve him. His dominion is an ever- 
lasting dominion, which shall not pass away ; 
and his kingdom, that which shall not be de- 
stroyed, Dan. vii. 13, 14. 

It is therefore evident, that the Pharisees, 
by desiring him to shew them a sign from 
heaven, meant that he should demonstrate 
himself to be the Messiah, by coming in 



a visible and miraculous manner from 
heaven, and wresting with great pomp the 
sceptre of David from the hands of the 
Romans. 

If the minds of the Pharisees had been 
open to conviction, the proofs which Jesus 
was daily giving them would have been 
more than sufficient to establish the truth 
of his mission, and demonstrate that he 
was the long-expected Messiah. 

But they were not desirous of being con- 
vinced ; and to that alone, and not to want 
of evidence, or of capacity in themselves, 
it was owing, that they refused to acknow- 
ledge our Saviour to be the person fore- 
told by the prophets. Their disposition 
was absolutely incorrigible ; so that Jesus 
sighed deeply in his spirit, and declared 
that the sign they sought should never be 
given them ; and that the only sign they 
were to expect, was that of the prophet 
Jonas, or the miracle of his own resurrec- 
tion ; a sign indeed much greater than any 
shewn by the ancient prophets; and con- 
sequently a sign which demonstrated that 
Jesus was far superior to them all. A wicked 
and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; 
and there shall no sign be given unto it, but 
the sign of the prophet Jonas, Matt. xvi. 4. 

Having thus reproved the impertinent 
curiosity of the Pharisees, he departed, 
with his disciples, and entered into a ship ; 
and as they sailed, he cautioned them to 
beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees and 
Sadducees, which he termed leaven, from 
its pernicious influence in filling the minds 
of men with pride, and other irregular pas- 
sions : these hypocrites chiefly insisted on 
the observations of frivolous traditions, but 
neglected the true principles of piety, and 
hence filled the minds of their hearers with 
an high opinion of their own sanctity. 

But the disciples having forgotten to 
take bread with them, understood that he 

intended 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



intended to caution them against procur- 
ing it from the Heathens or Samaritans. 
They were so weak, as not to think that 
their Master, who had fed some thousands 
of people with five loaves, was also capa- 
ble of providing for them in their neces- 
sities. 

On his landing at Bethsaida, they brought 
unto him a blind man, desiring that he 
would heal him : Jesus accordingly took 
the man by the hand, and led him out of 
the city, and having spit upon his eyes, 
and put his hands upon him, asked him if 
he saw aught? To which the man an- 
swered, I see men as trees walking. A very 
proper expression to convey an idea of the 
indistinctness of his vision. Jesus then put 
his hands again upon him, and he was re- 
stored to sight, and saw every man clearly. 
It should be remembered, that the people 
of Bethsaida had, by their ingratitude, im- 
penitence, and infidelity, greatly displeased 
the Saviour of the world : and this perhaps 
was the reason why Jesus would not per- 
form the cure in the city, but led the man 
out into the adjacent plain. The people 
had also, for a long time, been solicitous 
that he would take upon himself the cha- 
racter of a temporal Messiah ; and there- 
fore he chose to perform this miracle with- 
out the city, to prevent their farther im- 
portunity, so incompatible with the mo- 
desty and lowliness of our dear Lord and 
Master. 

CHAP. XVI. 

The blessed Jesus delegates a special power to 
Peter, one of the Disciples. — Pronounces 
the final Judgment of the World; and is 
afterwards transfigured upon the Mount. 

ESUS having displayed his power and 
goodness in restoring the blind man to 
his sight, departed from Bethsaida, and re- 



tired into the territory of Caesarea Philippi, 
where being desirous of proving in some 
measure the faith of the apostles, he asked 
them, saying, Whom do men say that J , tin: 
Son of man, am? In answer to this qu 
tion, the disciples replied, Some say, that 
thou art John the Baptist ; some, Elias ; and 
others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets, Matt, 
xvi. 14. 

The people in general mistook the cha- 
racter of our Saviour, because he did not 
assume that outward pomp and grandeur 
with which they supposed the Messiah 
would be adorned. Jesus was therefore 
desirous of hearing what idea his disciples 
formed of his character, as they had long 
enjoyed the benefit of his doctrine and 
miracles ; and accordingly asked them, 
What they themselves understood him to 
be ? To this question Simon Peter replied, 
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
God. 

Our Saviour acknowledged the title ; 
telling Peter, that God alone had revealed 
the secret to him. And in allusion to his 
surname Peter, which signifies a rock, our 
Saviour promised, that upon himself as the 
foundation, or upon the confession which 
Peter had just made of his being the Christ, 
the So?i of the livi?ig God, he would build his 
church, and that he should have a prin- 
cipal hand in establishing the Messiah's 
kingdom, never to be destroyed. Other 
foundation can no man lay, 1 Cor. iii. 11. 
On him may our souls rest, and the fiercest 
tempests shall rage in vain ! And I say also 
unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this 
rock I will build my church: and the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it. And I will 
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven : and whatsoever thou shah bind on 
earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatso- 
ever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in 
heaven, Matt. xvi. 18, 19- 

D d 




106 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Having delegated this power to Peter, 
our Saviour strictly forbade his disciples to 
tell any man that he was the Messiah ; be- 
cause it had been foretold by the prophets, 
that he should be rejected by the rulers 
of Israel as a false Christ, and sutler the 
pains of death. Then charged lie his dis- 
ciples, that they should tell no man that he 
was Jesus the Christ, Matt. xvi. 20. Cir- 
cumstances which could not fail of giv- 
ing his followers great offence, as they 
did not yet understand the true nature of 
his kingdom, and therefore he thought 
proper to let every man form a judg- 
ment of his mission from his doctrine and 
miracles. 

The foregoing discourses had doubtless 
filled the apostles' minds with lofty imagi- 
nations, and therefore our Saviour thought 
proper to acquaint them with his sufferings, 
in order to check any fond expectation of 
temporal power. Peter, however, was 
greatly displeased to hear his Master talk 
of dying at Jerusalem, when he had just 
before acknowledged the title of Messiah. 
Accordingly he rebuked him for the ex- 
pression, which he was so bold as to think 
unguarded. But Jesus, turning himself 
about, said to Peter, Get thee behind me, 
Satan ; thou art an offence unto me ; for thou 
savourest not the things that be of God, but 
■ those that be of men, Matt. xvi. 23. 

Peter's conduct, in this respect, arising 
from an immoderate attachment to sensual 
objects, our Saviour thought proper to 
declare publicly, that all who intended to 
share with him in the glory of the hea- 
venly Canaan, must deny themselves ; that 
is, they must be always ready to renounce 
every worldly pleasure, and even life itself, 
when the cause of religion required it : he 
also told them, that in this life they must 
expect to meet with troubles and disap- 
pointments ; and that whoever intended to 



be his disciple, must take up his cross daily, 
and follow him. 

Thus did the blessed Jesus fully explain 
to his disciples the true nature of the king- 
dom ; and at the same time intimated, that 
though they had already undergone many 
afflictions, yet they must expect still more 
and greater, which they must sustain with 
equal fortitude, following their Master in 
the footsteps of his afflictions. This duty, 
however hard, was absolutely necessary ; 
because, by losing their temporal life, they 
w^ould gain that which was eternal : For 
whosoever will save his life, shall lose it ; but 
whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the 
same shall save it, Luke ix. 24. For what 
is a man profited if he shoidd gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall 
a man give in exchange for his soul ? Matt, 
xvi. 26. 

To add to the weight of this argument, 
and to enforce the necessity of self-denial, 
our Saviour particularly declared, that a 
day was fixed for distributing rewards and 
punishments to all the human race ; and 
that he himself was appointed by the Fa- 
ther as universal Judge ; so that his enemies 
could not flatter themselves with the hope 
of escaping the punishments they deserved, 
nor his friends be afraid of losing their 
eternal reward. Whosoever, therefore, shall 
be ashamed of me and my words, in this adul- 
terous and sinful generation, of him also shall 
the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh 
in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, 
Mark viii. 38. 

To fortify the minds of his disciples, he 
informed them, that he would not appear 
to judge the world in his low and despised 
condition, but magnificently arrayed in 
both his own and his Father's glory ; nor 
attended by twelve weak disciples, but 
surrounded by myriads of celestial spirits, 
with numberless hosts of mighty angels ; 

nor 



AND SAVIOUR, 

nor should his rewards be the great offices 
and large possessions of a temporal king- 
dom, but the joj r s of immortality. 

Let us now ruminate on the glory of the 
Judge, and the solemnity of the final judg- 
ment. He shall come in the majestic splen- 
dour of his glorified body, pompously ar- 
rayed with the inaccessible light wherein 
Jehovah resides, and which darting through 
and enlightening the infinite regions of 
space with its ineffable brightness, shall 
make even the sun to disappear. Dressed 
in this awful manner, the great Judge, at- 
tended by the whole celestial host, will 
descend from heaven with a shout, with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
God, (1 Thess. iv. 16.) making heaven, 
earth, and hell, to resound. The dead of 
all countries, and of all times, will hear 
the tremendous call. Hark ! the living, 
filled with joy, exult at the approach of 
Omnipotence; or, seized with inexpres- 
sible horror, send up the most piercing- 
cries, and are all changed in a moment, in 
the twinkling of an eye ! The dead press 
forth from their graves, and follow each 
other in close procession ! Behold — but, 
ah ! nothing can behold ; nothing can 
bear his presence ! The heavens depart 
like a scroll, rolling itself together ! Every 
mountain and every island is moved. The 
bond, the free, the rich, the great, captains 
and kings, to avoid the face of him that 
sitteth on the throne, the presence of the 
Lamb, rush beneath trembling mountains, 
and plunge into flaming rivers ! but neither 
mountains nor flames will devour them, for 
they are raised immortal. Behold him 
then, for all must behold him ! even his 
eye, whose unthinking hand drove the 
nails at Calvary : nor heaven nor earth 
exist ; stars and sun are vanished, lest they 
should darken the procession ! Once the 
crucifixion of Jesus, and now his glory, 



JESUS CHRIST. 107 

extinguishes the sun ! Lo, hell, with what 
reluctance, comes forth for sentence ! Lo, 
two worlds to be judged, and the third an 
assistant spectator! Behold! with what 
beauty, with what boldness, with what joy, 
some spring forward towards the judgment- 
seat. See, on the other hand, how amazed, 
how terrified, the wicked appear ! with 
what vehemence they wish the extinction 
of their being ! fain would they fly, but 
cannot! impelled by a force, by strong 
necessity, they hasten to the place of judg- 
ment : as they advance, the sight of the 
tribunal from afar strikes them with new- 
terror. They approach in the deepesc 
silence, and gather round the throne by 
thousands and thousands. In the mean 
time, the angels having; gathered together 
the good from the uttermost parts of the 
earth, fly round the numberless multi- 
tudes, chanting melodious songs, and re- 
joicing that the day of general retribution 
is come, when vice shall be thrown from 
its highest post of usurpation, and virtue be 
exalted to the pinnacle of honour; when 
the intricacies of providence shall be un- 
ravelled, the perfections of the Almighty 
vindicated, the church of Christ, purchased 
by his blood, cleared from her iniquitous 
members, and every thing which offend- 
eth banished for ever. 

Behold ! the books are opened, silence 
proclaimed, and every individual filled 
with awful consciousness, that he in par- 
ticular is observed by the Almighty ; so 
that not one single person can be conceal- 
ed by the immensity of the crowd. The 
Judge, who can be biassed by no bribes, 
softened by no subtle insinuations, imposed 
upon by no feigned excuses, needs no evi- 
dences, but distinguishes with an unerring 
certainty. They separate ! they feel their 
judgment in them, and hasten to their 
proper places ; the righteous on one hand 



103 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



jf the throne, and the wicked on the 
other. Behold, how beautiful with the 
brightness of holiness do the righteous 
stand at God's tribunal ! their looks serene, 
and expressive of hopes full of immor- 
tality ! 

On the other hand, the wicked, con- 
founded at the remembrance of their past 
lives, terrified with the bitter apprehensions 
of what is to come, hang down their de- 
jected heads, and wish to hide themselves 
in the fathomless abyss ! but all in vain ; 
there is no escaping nor appealing from 
this tribunal. 

Behold, with mercy shining in his coun- 
tenance, the King invites the righteous to 
take possession of the kingdom prepared 
for them from the beginning of the world ; 
but with frowns of anger drives the wicked 
to punishment which will have no end, no 
remission, no alleviation. What horror, 
what despair, must seize these wretched 
souls, when they see hell gaping, hear the 
devils howling, and feel the unspeakable 
torment of an awakened conscience. — 
Now they seek for death, but find it not ; 
would gladly be righteous, but it is too 
late. 

The happy land of promise, formed by 
the hand of the Almighty, large, beautiful, 
and pleasant, a proper habitation for his 
people, and long expected by them as their 
country, now appears. Here all the righ- 
teous are assembled, forming one vast, one 
happy society, even the kingdom, the city, 
of God. Here Omnipotence manifests him- 
self in a peculiar manner to his servants, 
wipes awajr all tears from off their faces, 
and adorns them with the beauties of im- 
mortality. 

Here they drink a plenitude of joys from 
the crystal river, proceeding out of the 
throne of God and of the Lamb, and eat 
of the fruit of the tree of life. Here there 



shall be no death, nor sorrow, nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain. 

Flappy day ! happy place ! and happy 
people ! imagination faints with the fatigue 
of stretching itself to comprehend the vast, 
the unmeasurable thought ! 

As this doctrine of Christ being appointed 
the universal Judge might appear incre- 
dible at that time, on account of his hu- 
miliation, he told them that some who 
heard him speak should not taste of death, 
till they saw him coming in his kingdom. 
Verily I say unto you, There be some standing 
here, which shall not taste of death, till they 
see the So?i of man coming in his kingdom, 
Matt. xvi. 28. There are some here pre- 
sent that shall not die till they see a faint 
representation of the glory in which I shall 
come at the last day, and an eminent ex- 
ample of my power inflicted on the men 
of this sinful generation. 

To verify which prediction, the disciples 
lived to see their Master coming in his 
kingdom, when they were witnesses of his 
transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension, 
and had the miraculous gifts of the Holy 
Spirit conferred upon them ; lived to see 
Jerusalem, with the Jewish state, destroyed; 
and the gospel propagated through the 
greatest part of the then known world. 

About eight days after this discourse, 
our blessed Saviour, being with the multi- 
tude in the country of Csesarea Philippi, 
left them in the plain, and, accompanied 
with Peter, James, and John, ascended an 
exceedingly high mountain 

In this solitude, while Jesus was praying 
with these three disciples, he was trans- 
figured, his face became radiant and daz- 
zling, for it shone like the sun in his me- 
ridian clearness. At the same time, his 
garment acquired a snowy whiteness, far 
beyond any thing human art could pro- 
duce ; a whiteness bright as the light, and 

sweetly 



AND SAVIOUR, 

sweetly refulgent, but in a degree inferior 
to the radiance of his countenance. 

Thus, as it were, for an instant, the Son 
of God, during his state of humiliation, 
suffered the glory of his divinity to shine 
through the vail of human nature with 
which it was covered ; and to heighten the 
grandeur and solemnity of the scene, Moses, 
the great lawgiver of Israel, and Elijah, a 
zealous defender of the laws, appeared in 
the beauties of immortality, the robes in 
which the inhabitants of the heavenly Ca- 
naan are adorned. The disciples, it seems, 
did not see the beginning of this transfigu- 
ration; happening to fall asleep at the time 
of prayer, they lost that pleasure, together 
with a great part of the conversation which 
these two prophets held with the only be- 
gotten Son of God. 

They, however, understood that the 
subject was his meritorious sufferings and 
death, by which he was to redeem the 
world ; a subject that had, a few days be- 
fore, given great offence to his disciples, 
particularly to Peter. At beholding the 
illustrious sight, the disciples were greatly 
amazed; but the forwardness of Peter's 
disposition prompting him to say some- 
thing, he uttered he knew not what. 
Master, said he, it is good for us to be here : 
and let us make three tabernacles; one for 
thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias, 
Mark ix. 5. 

This disciple imagined that Jesus had 
now assumed his proper dignity ; that Elias 
was come, according to Malachi's predic- 
tion, and the Messiah's kingdom was at 
length begun. 

Accordingly, he thought it was neces- 
sary to provide some accommodation for his 
Master and his august assistants, intending, 
perhaps, to bring the rest of the disciples, 
with the multitude, from the plain below, 
to behold his matchless glory. This, he. 



JESUS CHRIST. 109 

thought, was much better for his Master, 
than to be put to death at Jerusalem, 
concerning which Jesus had been talking 
with the messengers from heaven, and the 
design of which Peter could not compre- 
hend. 

But while he yet spake, behold, a blight 
cloud overshadowed them ; and, behold, a voice 
out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased : hear ye him, 
Matt. XVll. o. 

When the three disciples heard the voice, 
which, like the roaring thunder, burst from 
the cloud, and was such as mortals were 
unaccustomed to hear, they fell on their 
faces, and continued in that posture till 
Jesus approached, raised them up, and 
dispelled their fears, saying unto them, 
Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had 
lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save 
Jesus only, Matt. xvii. 7, 8. 

Jesus having continued all night, with 
his three disciples, on the mountain, re- 
turned to the plain early in the morning, 
charging them to conceal what they had 
seen till after he was risen from the dead. 
He well knew that the world, and even his 
own disciples, were not yet able to com- 
prehend the design of his transfiguration ; 
and that if it had been published before his 
resurrection, it might have appeared incre- 
dible ; because nothing but afflictions and 
persecutions had hitherto attended him. 
He was truly a man of sorrows, and acquainted 
with grief. 

But the doctrine of the resurrection, to 
which the transfiguration possibly alluded, 
was what the disciples were utterly unable 
to understand. They had never learnt that 
the Messiah was to die ; far less that he 
was to be raised from the dead. They 
were, on the contrary, persuaded, that he 
was to abide for ever ; and that his king- 
dom was to have no end. They were also 

E e greatly 



no 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



greatly surprised at the sudden departure 
of Elias, and could not comprehend what 
the Scribes meant by affirming, that he 
must appear, before the Messiah would 
erect his empire. They, therefore, after 
long debating among themselves, asked 
their Master, Why say the Scribes, that Elias 
must first come? To which Jesus answered, 
that Elias should truly come first, accord- 
ing to the prediction of Malachi, and re- 
store all things : but at the same time, he 
assured them that Elias was already come, 
and described the treatment he had met 
with from that stiff-necked people ; giving 
them to understand, that he spake of John 
the Baptist. But I say unto you, that 
Elias is come already, and they knew him not, 
but have done unto him whatsoever they listed : 
likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of 
them. Then the disciples understood that he 
spake unto them of John the Baptist, Matt, 
xvii. 12, 13. 

CHAP. XVII. 

Our Saviour relieves a Youth tortured with 
a dumb Spirit. — Conforms cheerfully to 
the Custom of the Country, by paying the 
Tribute. — Reproves the Bride of his Dis- 
ciples, and delivers some excellent moral 
Brecepts. 

HEN our Lord approached the de- 
scent of the mountain, accompanied 
by his three disciples, he saw a great mul- 
titude surrounding the nine, who continued 
in the plain, and the scribes disputing 
with them. The people seeing Jesus com- 
ing down from the mountain, ran to him, 
and saluted him with particular reverence. 
After which Jesus asked the Scribes, what 
was the subject of their debate with his dis- 
ciples? To which one of the multitude 
answered; Master, I have brought unto thee 



my son, which hath a dumb spirit: and where- 
soever he taketh him, he teareth him ; and he 
foameth and gnasheth with his teeth, and pirieth 
away : and I spake to thy disciples, that they 
should cast him out; and they could not, Mark 
ix. 17, 18. 

This answer being made by one of the 
multitude, and not by the Scribes, to whom 
the question was directed, indicates that 
they had been disputing with the disciples 
on their not being able to cure this afflicted 
youth : perhaps their making this unsuc- 
cessful attempt had given the Scribes oc- 
casion to boast that a devil was at length 
found, which neither they nor their Master 
were able to conquer. This seems to be 
indicated by the manner in which our Sa- 
viour addressed himself to these arrogant 
rulers. O faithless generation, saj^s he, how 
long shall I be with you? how long shall I 
suffer you ? Will no miracles ever be able 
to convince you ? Must I always bear 
with your infidelity? You have surely 
seen sufficient demonstrations of my power, 
notwithstanding ye still discover the most 
criminal infidelity ? After speaking in 
this manner to the Scribes, he turned him- 
self to the father of the young man, and 
said, Bring thy Son hither. But no sooner 
was he brought in sight of his deliverer, 
than the evil spirit attacked him, as it were, 
with double fury: The spirit tare him; and 
he fell on the ground, and wallowed, foaming, 
Mark ix. 20. 

Jesus could easily have prevented this 
attack ; but he permitted it, that the minds 
of the spectators might be impressed with 
a more lively idea of this youth's distress. 
And for the same reason probably it was, 
that he asked the father, how long he had 
been in this deplorable condition? To 
which the afflicted parent answered, Of a 
child. And oft-times it hath cast him into 
the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him, 

but 




AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST 



but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion 
on us, and help us, Mark ix. 21, 22. 

The inability of our Lord's disciples to 
cast out this spirit, had greatly discouraged 
the afflicted father ; and the exquisite tor- 
ture of his son, and the remembrance of 
its long continuance, so dispirited him, 
that he began to fear this possession was 
even too great for the power of Jesus him- 
self, as the Scribes had probably before 
affirmed ; and therefore could not help ex- 
pressing his doubts and fears. But Jesus, 
to make him sensible of his mistake, said 
to him, If thou canst believe, all things are 
possible to him that believeth. On which the 
father cried out, with tears, Lord, I believe; 
help thou mine unbelief The vehement 
manner in which he spake causing the 
crowd to gather from every quarter, Jesus 
rebuked the foul spirit; saying unto him, 
Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, 
come out of him, and enter no more into him, 
Mark ix. 25. 

No sooner was the powerful exit pro- 
nounced, than the spirit, with an hideous 
howling, and convulsing the suffering pa- 
tient in the most deplorable manner, came 
out, leaving the youth senseless, and with- 
out motion ; till Jesus, taking him by the 
hand, restored him to life, and delivered 
him, perfectly recovered, to his father. 

The nine disciples, during this whole 
transaction, remained silent. They were 
doubtless mortified to think that they had 
lost, by some fault of their own, the power 
of working miracles, latety conferred upon 
them by their Master ; and for this reason 
were afraid to speak to him in the presence 
of the multitude. But when they came 
into the house, they desired Jesus to in- 
form them why they failed in their attempt 
to heal that remarkable youth ? To which 
Jesus answered, Because of your unbelief. 
But to encourage them, he described the 



efficacy of the faith of miracles. If ye 
have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye 
shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence 
to yonder place, and it shall remove : and 
nothing shall be impossible unto you, Matt, 
xvii. 20. Nothing; shall be too great for 
you to accomplish, when the glory of God 
and the good of the church are concerned, 
provided you have a proper degree of faith ; 
even yonder mountain, which bids defi- 
ance to the storm, and smiles at the attacks 
of its mingled horrors, shall, at your com- 
mand, leave its firm basis, and remove to 
another place. 

The expulsion of the dumb spirit seems 
to have astonished the disciples more than 
any other miracle the} 7 had seen their Mas- 
ter perform ; so that our Saviour found it 
necessary to moderate their high admira- 
tion of his works, by again predicting his 
own death, and retiring: for a time into the 
unfrequented parts of Galilee. 

But they could not comprehend how 
the Messiah, who was to abide for ever, 
and was come to deliver others from the 
stroke of death, should himself fall by the 
hand of that universal destroyer. And be- 
cause he spake of rising again the third 
day, they could not conceive the reason 
for his d} T ing at all, and for his lying so 
short a time in the chambers of the grave. 
But though they were alarmed at this 
declaration, they remembered that he had 
often inculcated this doctrine, and repri- 
manded Peter for being- unwilling; to hear 
it. 

After a short tour through the desert 
part of Galilee, Jesus returned into Caper- 
naum, the place of his general residence. 
Soon after his arrival, the tax-gatherers 
came to Peter, and asked him, whether 
his Master would pay the tribute ? That 
disciple, it seems, had promised that Jesus 
would satisfy their demand ; but, on a 

more 



112 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



more mature consideration, feared to ask 
him concerning his paying taxes, on any 
pretence whatever. 

Jesus was, however, no stranger to what 
had happened, and the fear of Peter to ask 
him ; and therefore turned his discourse 
to this subject, by saying unto him, What 
thinkest thou, Simon ? of whom do the 
kings of the earth take custom or tribute? 
of their own children, or of strangers? 
Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus 
saith unto him, Then are the children free ; 
insinuating, that as he was himself the 
Son of the great King, to whom hea- 
ven, earth, and the sea belong, he had no 
right to pay tribute to any monarch what- 
ever, because he held nothing by a derived 
right. 

Or, if we suppose this contribution was 
made for the service and reparation of the 
temple, he meant, that as he was himself 
the Son of that omnipotent Being to whom 
the tribute was paid, he could have justly 
excused himself. But the blessed Jesus 
was always careful not to give offence ; and 
therefore sent Peter to the lake, with a line 
and a hook, telling him, that in the mouth 
of the first fish that came up, he should 
find a piece of money equal to the sum 
demanded of them both. Notwithstanding, 
lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, 
and cast an hook, and take up the fish that 
first cometh up ; and when thou hast opened 
his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money; 
that take, and give unto them for me and thee, 
Matt. xvii. 21. 

Our Lord took this extraordinary me- 
thod of paying the tribute-money in this 
manner, because the miracle was of such a 
kind as could not fail to demonstrate that 
he was the Son of the great Monarch wor- 
shipped in the temple, and who rules the 
universe. In the very manner, therefore, 
of paying this tribute, he shewed Peter | 



that he was free from all taxes; and at the 
same time gave this useful lesson to his fol- 
lowers, that when their property is affected 
only in a small degree, it is better to recede 
a little from their just right, than to offend 
their brethren, or disturb the state, by ob- 
stinately insisting on it. 

Notwithstanding our blessed Saviour had 
lately foretold his own sufferings and death, 
and though these melancholy accounts had 
greatly afflicted the minds of his disciples, 
yet their grief was of no long continuance ; 
for within a few days they forgot the pre- 
dictions of their Master, and disputed with 
each other about the chief posts of honour 
and profit in the Messiah's kingdom. This 
debate was overheard by the blessed Jesus, 
though he did not mention it till after the 
tax-gatherers were retired, when he asked 
them, what they were disputing about on 
the way? This question rendered them all 
silent. They were fearful of discovering 
the cause that had given rise to the debate, 
as they knew it would draw on them a re- 
primand from their Master. Jesus per- 
ceiving that they still continued silent, sat 
clown, and ordered them all to stand 
around him, and attend to what he was 
going to deliver. If any man, said the Sa- 
viour of the world, is ambitious of being the 
greatest person in my kingdom, let him 
endeavour to obtain that dignity by pre- 
ferring others in honour, and doing to them 
all the good offices in his power. If any 
man desire to he first, the same shall be last of 
all, and servant of all, Mark ix. 35. 

The disciples were now convinced, that 
it was in vain to conceal the subject of the 
debate that had happened on the way ; and 
accordingly they drew near to their Master, 
desiring him to decide a point which had 
often given occasion to disputes ; Who, 
said they, is the greatest in the kingdom 
of heaven? Matt, xviii. 1. Jesus, to check 

these 



AND SAVIOUR, 

these foolish emulations in his disciples, 
called a little child unto him, and placed 
him in the midst, that they might consider 
him attentively ; and said unto them, Ve- 
rily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, 
and become as little children, ye shall not enter 
into the kingdom of heaven, Matt, xviii. 3. 
Unless ye be regenerated by the power of 
divine grace, and brought to a due sense 
of the vanity of all earthly preferments, 
riches, and honours, and become meek 
and humble in spirit, ye shall be so far 
from becoming the greatest in my king- 
dom, that ye shall never enter into it. But 
whosoever shall accept of the remedy pro- 
vided, and receive with meekness all the 
Divine instructions, however contrary to 
his own inclinations, and prefer others to 
himself, that man is really the greatest 
in my kingdom. TVhosever therefore shall 
humble himself as this little child, the same- 
is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Matt, 
xviii. 4. 

Our Saviour, to demonstrate how truly 
acceptable the grace of humility is to the 
Almighty, took the child in his arms, de- 
clarino- that whoever humbled themselves 
like a little child, and shewed kindness to 
their fellow-creatures for his sake, should 
have the same kindness shewed them in 
the great day of account, especially if they 
performed these actions in obedience to his 
commands. 

It appears, from circumstances, that 
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, 
were principally concerned in this de- 
bate; for we find that John endeavoured 
to divert it, hy telling his Master they had 
seen one casting out devils in his name, 
and had forbidden him, because he did not 
join himself to their company. To which 
Jesus replied, that they should not have 
forbidden him, since he must have enter- 
tained very high notions of their Master's 



JESUS CHRIST. 113 

power, at seeing the devils leave the bodies 
of men, on mentioning the name of Jesus. 
Forbid him not ; for there is no man which 
shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly 
speak evil of me, Mark ix. 39- 

You should, added the blessed Jesus, 
consider that every one that does not per- 
secute us is a friend, and that the ejection 
of devils in my name will advance my 
doctrine, and promote my cause, even 
thou oh the exorcist and the devils them- 
selves should design the contrary. He also 
told his disciples, that the least degree of 
respect shewed him by any one, even though 
it should be no more than the giving a cup 
of cold water to his thirsty disciples, was 
acceptable to him, and should not fail of 
meeting an adequate reward. For who- 
soever shall give you a cup of water to drink in 
my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I 
say unto you, He shall not lose his reward, 
Mark ix. 41. 

But, on the other hand, the least dis- 
couragement given to his disciples in the 
propagation of the gospel, come from what 
quarter it will, shall be punished with the 
greatest severity. And whosoever shall offend 
one of these little ones that believe in me, it is 
better for him that a millstone were hanged 
about his neck, and he were cast into the sea, 
Mark ix. 42. 

From this saying, Jesus inferred, that it 
was more advantageous to deny ourselves 
the highest enjoyments of this world, and 
to part with every thing, however precious, 
represented by a hand, a foot, or an eye, 
than by these to cause the weakest of his 
friends to stumble. And as the disciples 
were appointed to sow the seeds of truth 
and religion in the world, or, according to 
the metaphor, to salt the people for an 
offering to heaven, in allusion to sacrifices 
being salted at the temple, Jesus exhorted 
them to mortify themselves, that they 

F f might 



114 



THE LIFE OF OUFv BLESSED LORD 



might appear worthy of so high an office 
as that of salting mankind for the altar of 
heaven: for as they were to be the salt of 
the earth, it was requisite they should 
themselves be filled with the spiritual salt 
of all the graces, and particularly the holy 
salt of love and peace, that they might, as 
far as possible, be free from the rottenness 
of ambition, pride, contention, and every 
evil work. 

Pride is the source of numberless sins: 
and therefore the blessed Jesus cautioned 
his disciples, in the most solemn manner, 
to beware of that vice; assuring them that 
the meanest child is an object of the care 
of Providence ; and that their angels do 
always behold the face of my Father which is 
in heaven. Our blessed Saviour did not 
mean, by this expression, that every man 
who practises the duties of religion has a 
particular guardian angel assigned him ; 
but as all angels are sent as ministering 
spirits, they may be called his angels. 

To shew the concern of his Almighty 
Father for the least of his reasonable crea- 
tures, and the great value he sets upon the 
souls of the human race, our Saviour told 
them, that he not on\y gave his highest 
angels charge concerning them, but had 
also sent his only begotten Son, to seek and 
to save that which was lost; and would 
share in the joy which the heavenly beings 
are filled with on their recovery. How 
think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, 
and one of them be gone astray, doth he not 
leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the 
mountains, and seeketh that which is gone 
astray ? And if so be that he find it, verily 
I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, 
than of the ninety and nine which went not 
astray. Even so it is not the will of your 
Father which is in heaven, that one of these 
little ones should perish, Matt, xviii, 12, 
13, 14 



Having thus addressed the offending 
party, he turned himself towards his dis- 
ciples, and gave them instructions with 
regard to the offended. If thy brother shall 
trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault 
between thee and him alone ; if he shall hear 
thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he 
will not hear thee, then take with thee one or 
two more, that in the mouths of two or three 
witnesses every word may be established. And 
if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the 
church; but if he neglect to hear the church, 
let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a 
publican, Matt, xviii. 15, 16, 17- 

Try every measure to reclaim thy bro- 
ther, and in order to this represent his fault 
to him privately. If this rebuke has the 
desired effect, thou hast brought him back 
to the paths which lead to happiness ; but 
if this gentle method fail, two or more 
grave persons should join in the rebuke, 
that he may be convinced of the injury 
he has done thee. If he still remains ob- 
stinate, tell his offence to the church, 
whose sentence will sufficiently shew that 
thou hast done thy duty, and that he alone 
is to blame. But if he be so hardened as 
not to be affected by the censure of the 
church, he is from thenceforth to be treated 
as the Pharisees treated the heathens and 
publicans; namely, as an incorrigible sinner, 
whose company and conversation being- 
contagious, ought to be shunned by all who 
have any love for religion. 

Our Saviour now conferred the special 
power, which some think he had before 
confined to Peter, on all his disciples. 
Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and 
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven, Matt, xviii. 18. That is, 
Ye have free power to excommunicate 
such offenders as will not be reclaimed by 
proper means, or to free from church cen- 
sure 



AND SAVIOUR, 

sure those who were truly penitent ; and 
such decree will remain valid in the court 
of heaven, though passed here below. 

But, on the other hand, if the offending 
brother continue impenitent after all the 
methods above described are tried, his guilt 
is bound the faster upon him; because, by 
the precepts of the gospel, none but peni- 
tents can obtain pardon. 

Our blessed Saviour also added, as an 
encouragement to good men, that if they 
continued earnest in their endeavours to 
bring sinners to repentance, and offered up 
their prayer to the Almighty for assistance, 
he would always grant their petitions, pro- 
vided the3 r were agreeable to the wise ends 
of his providence. Again, I say unto you, 
that if two of you shall agree on earth as 
touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall 
be done for them by my Father which is in 
heaven. For where two or three are gathered 
together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them, Matt, xviii. 19, 20. 

Peter had before heard his Master speak 
of the doctrine of frequent forgivenesses, 
and imagined that what he had now so 
strongly inculcated might prove dangerous 
to society; and therefore thought it his 
duty to offer his objections. Lord, said he, 
how oft shall my brother sin against me, and 
I forgive him? till seven times? Matt, xviii. 
21. He thought it a strange doctrine 
which obliged him to forgive offences 
seven times repeated : but our blessed Sa- 
viour told him, that he was very greatly 
mistaken ; that he never intended to limit 
forgiveness to seven times, but that it 
ought to be extended even to seventy times 
seven. 

This excellent moral precept he en- 
forced hy the parable of the two servants, 
debtors to one lord : in order to shew the 
necessity of forgiving the greatest injuries 
in every case where the offending party is | 



JESUS CHRIST. 115 

sensible of his fault, and promises amend- 
ment; because on this condition alone our 
heavenly Father will forgive our offences. 
Therefore, said the blessed Jesus, is the 
kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, 
which would take account of his servants. 
God is the great King and Sovereign of all 
creatures, and all are accountable to him, 
as servants to a master. He will reckon 
with all ; and happy are they who live 
sensible of this important truth, ^'hen 
he had begun to reckon, one servant was 
brought unto him who owed him an im- 
mense debt, ten thousand talents, a debt 
much greater than he was able to pa v. 
His lord, therefore, commanded him, 
agreeable to the custom of those times, to 
be sold for a slave, and his wife and cliil- 
dren, and all that he had, and payment to be 
made. 

The servant, convinced of the justice of 
the sentence, and knowing he had nothing 
to hope for but from the mercy and cle- 
mency of his lord, fell down in the most 
humble manner, and importunately be- 
sought him, saying, Lord, have patience 
with me, and I will pay thee all. The mas- 
ter, moved with compassion towards him, 
accepted of his humiliation; and, to make 
his happiness complete, loosed him from 
the sentence inflicted, and freely forgave 
him the enormous debt; an obligation, one 
would have supposed, sufficient to have 
melted the hardest heart into gratitude to- 
wards his lord, and the tenderest sympa- 
thy towards any of his brethren in distress. 
But, alas ! who is acquainted with the 
human heart ? This very servant went out 
from the presence of his compassionate 
lord, and found one of his fellow-servants 
who owed him a hundred pence ; a poor 
inconsiderable debt, in comparison of what 
he himself owed his lord. 

But behold the inhumanity of this ser- 
vant ! 



116 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



vant! he laid hands on the poor debtor, 
seizing him violently by the throat, and 
said, Fay me that thou owest. His fellow- 
servant fell down at his feet, even just as 
he had before done at the feet of his lord, 
and besought him in the very same words 
he himself had so lately used, Have patience 
with me, and I will pay thee all. Such a si- 
milarity of circumstances, one would have 
thought, must have affected his stony heart, 
brought to remembrance his own late dis- 
tress, and melted his soul into the like ge- 
nerous compassion which had flowed so 
sweetly from his lord to him. But his con- 
duct was the very reverse : he would have 
no patience, he would shew no pity; he 
went and cast the unhappy debtor into 
prison, till he should pay the debt. 

His fellow-servants, when they saw what 
was done, were exceedingly afflicted ; and 
came and told their lord the whole trans- 
action. Upon which he summoned the 
unmerciful servant to appear before him; 
and, filled with indignation and abhor- 
rence, said unto him, O thou wicked ser- 
vant, how perverse is thy behaviour, how 
ungrateful and base thy proceeding ! I 
forgave thee all that debt, that enormous 
debt thou owedst me, because thou desiredst 
me ; I was moved to clemency and com- 
passion by thy entreaties and distress : and 
shoiddest not thou also have had compassion on 
thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? 
Shouldest not thou much rather have for- 
given him, who was thy fellow-servant, and 
owed thee so small a sum, when I, thy 
king and lord, had forgiven thee so im- 
mense a debt? 

Having thus expostulated with him, his 
wrath was kindled, and he delivered him to 
the tormentors, till he should pay all that was 
due unto him. So likewise, added the Son 
of God, shall my heavenly Father do also 
unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not 



every one his brother their trespasses, Matt, 
xviii. 34, 35. And surety this awful 
threatening ought to strike the minds of 
fierce and implacable men with terror : 
for, whatever they may think, it will cer- 
tainly, in its full extent, be inflicted upon 
all who refuse to obey the dictates of Di- 
vine mercy, and to forgive not only their 
fellow-servants, but every brother in Christ, 
who through weakness or inadvertence 
may have done them an injury, either in 
person or property. How unreasonable 
and how odious does a severe and uncha- 
ritable temper appear, when we view it in 
the light of this parable! Let us then from 
this moment earnestly pray to be saved 
from every sentiment of rancour and re- 
venge, nor ever allow a word, or even a wish, 
that savours of it. 

CHAP. XVIII. 

Our blessed Lord attends for the fourth Time 
the Celebration of the Passover at Jeru- 
salem. — Addresses the Multitude at the 
solemn Feast of Tabernacles. — Exempts 
the Woman detected in Adultery from the 
Punishment annexed by the Jews to that 
Clime. — Escapes from the Snares laid for 
him by the inveterate Scribes and Pha- 
risees. 

HE great Redeemer, having promoted 
his Father's work in Galilee, departed 
into Judea, passing through the country 
beyond Jordan, that the Jews who in- 
habited those distant parts might enjoy the 
unspeakable benefits of his discourses and 
miracles. After sowing the seeds of eter- 
nal life, and publishing the glad tidings of 
salvation in those remote countries, he re- 
paired to Jerusalem, to celebrate the fourth 
passover; but the malignity of the Scribes 
and Pharisees was so great, that he staid 

but 




AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



117 



but a short time in the capital ; and then 
returned into Galilee, while the multitude 
again resorted to him, and he again in- 
structed them in the paths that lead to 
everlasting life. 

The feast of the tabernacles now drew 
on, at which all the males of the Jewish 
nation, capable of travelling, repaired to 
Jerusalem, and dwelt in the tabernacles, 
or booths made of the boughs of trees, in 
commemoration of their fathers having had 
no other habitation, during their forty 
years' sojourning in the wilderness. To 
this feast some of the kinsmen of the 
blessed Jesus desired he would accompany 
them, and there shew himself openly to 
the whole nation of the Jews. "They did 
not themselves believe that he was the great 
Prophet so long expected, and therefore 
condemned the method he pursued in his 
public ministry as altogether absurd. 

They could not conceive what reason he 
had for spending so much of his time in the 
deserts, and remote corners of the kingdom, 
while he professed so public a character as 
that of the Redeemer of Israel. Jerusalem, 
the seat of power, was in their opinion 
much the properest place for him to deliver 
his doctrines, and work his miracles in 
the most public manner possible, before the 
great and learned men of the nation, w T hose 
decision in his favour would have great 
weight m increasing the number of his 
disciples, and inducing the whole nation to 
own him for the Messiah. Depart hence, 
and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may 
see the works that thou doest. For there is no 
man that doeth any thing in secret, and he 
himself seeketh to be known openly: If thou 
do these things, shew thyself to the zcorld. 
For neither did his brethren believe in him, 
John vii. 3, 4, 5. 

Our Lord well knew the rancorous pre- 
judice of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and 



therefore did not think proper to reside 
among them any longer than was abso- 
lutely necessary. They had more than 
once attempted his life, and therefore very 
little hopes remained that they would be- 
lieve his miracles, or embrace his doctrine ; 
but, on the contrary, there was great reason 
to think they would destroy him, if pos- 
sible, before he had finished the work for 
which he assumed the vail of human na- 
ture, and resided among the sons of men. 
My tune, said the blessed Jesus to these 
unbelieving relations, is not yet come; but 
your time is alway ready. The world can- 
not hate you ; but me it hateth, because I 
testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. 
Go ye up unto this feast : I go not up yet 
unto this feast ; for my time is not yet full 
come, John vii. 6, 7, B. As if he had said, 
It is not proper for me to go before the 
feast begins : but you may repair to the 
capital whenever you please ; the Jews 
are 3 T our friends, you have done nothing to 
displease them : but the purity of the doc- 
trine I have preached to them, and the 
freedom with which I have reproved their 
hypocrisy and other enormous crimes, 
have provoked their malice to the utmost 
height, and therefore, as the time of my 
sufferings is not yet come, it is not prudent 
for me to go so soon to Jerusalem. 

There was also another reason why our 
blessed Saviour refused to accompany these 
relations to the feast of tabernacles : the 
roads were crowded with people, and these 
gathering round him, and accompanying 
him to Jerusalem, would doubtless have 
given fresh offence to his enemies, and 
have in a great measure prevented his mi- 
racles and doctrines from having the de- 
sired effect. He therefore chose to con- 
tinue in Galilee, till the crowd were all 
gone up to Jerusalem, when he followed, 
as it were in secret, neither preaching, nor 

G g working 



118 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



working miracles by the way ; so that no 
crowd attended him to the feast. 

As Jesus did not go up openly to Jeru- 
salem, so neither did he on his arrival 
repair to the temple, and there preach 
openly to the people. This gave occasion 
to several disputes among the Jews with 
regard to his character. Some affirmed 
that he was a true prophet; and that his 
absenting himself from the feast could be 
only owing to accident : while others as 
confidentl}*" asserted, that he only de- 
ceived the people, and paid no regard to 
the institutions they had received from 
heaven. 

But about the middle of the feast, Jesus 
appeared openly in the temple, and taught 
the people, delivering his doctrines with 
such strength of reason and elegance of 
expression, that his very enemies were 
astonished, knowing: that he had never en- 
joyed the advantage of a learned educa- 
tion. Now about the midst of the feast 
Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. 
And the Jews marvelled, saying, 'Bow know- 
eth this man letters, having never learned? 
John vii. 14, 15. 

To which the Great Redeemer of man- 
kind replied, My doctrine was not pro- 
duced by human wisdom ; the sages of 
the world were not my instructors; I re- 
ceived it from heaven ! it is the doctrine 
of the Almighty, whose messenger 1 am. 
My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 
John vii. 16. 

Nor can he who is desirous of practising 
the doctrines I deliver, if he will lay aside 
his prejudices, and sincerely desire to be 
taught of God, be at a loss to know from 
whom my doctrines are derived ; because 
he will easily discern whether they are 
conformable to the will of man, or of God. 
It is no difficulty to discover an impostor, 
because all his precepts will tend to ad- 



vance his own interest, and gratify his 
pride. Whereas all the doctrines delivered 
by a true prophet have no other end than 
the glory of God, however contrary they 
may prove to himself. He that speaketh 
of himself, seeketh his own glory ; but he 
that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same 
is true, and no unrighteousness is in him, 
John vii. 18. 

Our Lord was upbraided with impiety 
by some of the Jews, because he had 
healed on the sabbath the impotent man 
in one of the porches of Bethesda, which 
they pretended was a violation of the law 
of Moses, and consequently what no pro- 
phet would be guilty of. In answer to 
which our blessed Saviour told them, that 
however they might pretend to reverence 
the authority of Moses, and his law, they 
made no scruple of violating the most sa- 
cred of his precepts : they had resolved to 
put him to death, directly contrary to every 
law of God and man ; and in order to ex- 
ecute their detestable scheme, were laying 
plots against his life. 

The people replied, Thou hast a devil: 
who goeth about to kill thee ? To which 
Jesus answered, I have done a miracle of 
an extraordinary kind on the sabbath-day, 
which you think inconsistent with the cha- 
racter of a. pious man, and therefore 
wonder how I could perform it. But 
surely Moses gave you the law of circum- 
cision, and you make no scruple of per- 
forming that ceremony on the sabbath- 
day, because it is a precept both of Moses 
and the fathers. Since, therefore, ye think 
yourselves bound to dispense with the 
strict observance of the sabbath, in order 
to obey a ceremonial precept ; can you be 
angry with me, because, in order to fulfil 
the great end of all the divine law, I 
have cured a man who was infirm in all his 
members, and even with far less bodily 

labour 



AND SAVIOUR, 

labour than you perform the ceremony of 
circumcision ? Consider, therefore, the 
nature of the thing; divest yourselves of 
your prejudices, and the superstitious opi- 
nions taught by your elders, and judge 
impartially. Moses therefore gave unto yon 
circumcision , (not because it is of Moses, but 
of the fathers,) and ye on the sabbath-day 
circumcise a man. If a man on the sabbath- 
day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses 
should not be broken ; are ye angry at me, be- 
cause I have made a man every whit whole on 
the sabbath day ? Judge not according to the 
appearance, but judge righteous judgment, 
John vii. 22, 23, 24. 

Notwithstanding; the strength of this ar- 
gument, several of our blessed Saviour's 
inveterate enemies asked, with sarcastical 
surprise, If the boldness of Jesus, and the 
silence of the rulers, proceeded from their 
being convinced that he was the Messiah ? 
and at the same time, to deride his pre- 
tensions to that high character, said, that 
they were acquainted both with his parents 
and relations ; but that no man, when 
Christ appeared, w T ould be able to tell 
from whence he came : founding their 
opinion on these words of the prophet 
Isaiah, Who shall declare his generation? 
Isaiah liii. 8. To which the blessed Jesus 
answered, that their knowing his parents 
and relations was no reason against his 
having the prophetical character of the 
Messiah. Adding, I am not come of 
myself, but sent from heaven by God, who 
has uttered nothing by his servants the 
prophets concerning the Messiah, but 
what is true, and will all be fulfilled in 
me ; but ye are totally ignorant of his 
gracious perfections and gracious coun- 
sels, and have no inclination to obey his 
just commands. You are really ignorant 
of what the prophets have delivered con- 
cerning the Messiah ; for had you under- 



JESUS CHRIST. 1 1 ( ) 

stood their predictions, you would have 
known that one of his principal chanted i 
is, to understand the perfections and will of 
God more fully, and to explain them to 
the sons of men more clearly, than any 
other messenger ever before sent from the 
Most High. And would you attentively 
consider the doctrines I deliver, you would 
soon perceive this character remarkably 
fulfilled in me, and be convinced that I 
came from the almighty God of Jacob. 

This observation, however powerful, and 
his reasons, however solid, were far from 
disarming his enemies of their malice ; for 
some of them were desirous of apprehend- 
ing him ; but Providence would not suffer 
any to lay hands on him, because the time 
of his sufferings was not yet come. Many 
of the people, however, convinced by the 
powerful miracles he had lately wrought, 
and the unanswerable reasons he had ad- 
vanced in support of his character, be- 
lieved on him, and affirmed publicly in the 
temple, that he was the Messiah. And 
many of the people believed on him, and said, 
When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles 
than these which this man hath done? John 
vii. 31. 

The Scribes and Pharisees were highly 
provoked at this attachment of the com- 
mon people to Jesus; and accordingly, on 
the last and great day of the feast, they 
met in council, and sent several officers to 
apprehend him, and bring him before 
them. Jesus, during these transactions 
in the council, continued in the temple, 
teaching the people. My ministry, said 
he to the multitude, is drawing near its pe- 
riod; and therefore you should, during the 
short time it has to last, be very careful to 
improve every opportunity of hearing the 
word : you should listen with the greatest 
attention to every discourse, that your 
minds may be stored with the truths of 



120 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



the Almighty, before I return to my Fa- 
ther ; for, after my departure, you shall 
earnestly wish for the same opportunities, 
of seeing me and hearing my instructions, 
but shall never obtain them. Yet a little 
while am I with you, and then I go unto kim 
that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not 
find me : and where I am, thither ye cannot 
come, John vii. 33, 34. 

The Jews, who did not understand that 
our blessed Saviour alluded to his own 
death, resurrection, and ascension to the 
right hand of the Majesty on high, whi- 
ther their sins would not permit them to 
follow him, wondered at this doctrine, and 
imagined that he intended to leave Judea, 
and preach to their brethren dispersed 
among the Gentiles. But this supposition 
was not sufficient: because if he did go 
and preach among the Gentiles, they 
thought it was not impossible for them to 
follow him thither. Then said the Jews 
among themselves, Whither will he go, that 
we shall not find him ? Will he go unto the 
dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the 
Gentiles? What manner of saying is this that 
he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find 
me : and where I am, thither ye cannot come ? 
John vii. 35, 36. 

While the divine Teacher was thus in- 
structing the people in the temple, the 
water from Siloam was brought in, accord- 
ing to the appointment of the prophets 
Haggai and Zechariah, part of which they 
drank with loud acclamations, in comme- 
moration of the mercy shewed to their 
fathers, who were relieved by a stream 
which miraculously flowed from a rock, 
and refreshed a whole nation, then ready 
to perish with thirst in a dreary and sandy 
waste; and the other part they poured out 
as a drink-offering to the Almighty, ac- 
companying it with their prayers, for the 
former or latter rain to fall in its season ; 



the whole congregation singing the fol- 
lowing passage : With joy shall ye draw 
water out of the wells of salvation, Isaiah 
xii. 3. 

It was the custom of the blessed Jesus 
to deliver moral instructions, in allusion to 
many occurrences that happened ; and ac- 
cordingly he took this opportunity of in- 
viting, in the most affectionate manner, all 
who were desirous of knowledge or hap- 
piness to come to him and drink, alluding 
to the ceremony they were then perform- 
ing. And to encourage all such as were 
desirous of believing in him, he promised 
them the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which 
he represented under the similitude of a 
river flowing out of their belly. In the 
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus 
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, 
let him come unto me, and drink. He that 
believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out 
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, 
John vii. 37, 38. 

During this discourse to the people, the 
officers from the council came to appre- 
hend him: but hearing that the topic he 
was discussing was a very singular one, 
and he seemed to deliver his discourse 
with remarkable fervour, their curiosity 
induced them to listen some time to his 
discourse, before they laid hands on him. 
But the eloquent manner in which he de- 
livered his subject appeased their rage : 
the sweetness of his pronunciation, and 
the plainness and perspicuity of his dis- 
course, elucidated the beauties of truth, 
and caused them to shine before the un- 
derstanding with their native lustre. Ac- 
cordingly, his very enemies, who were 
come from the council on purpose to ap- 
prehend him, were astonished : the great- 
ness of the subject, made as it were visible 
by the divine speaker, filled their under- 
standings ; the warmth and tenderness with 

which 



AND SAVIOUR, 

which he delivered himself, penetrated 
their hearts; they felt new and uncommon 
emotions, and being overwhelmed with 
the greatness of their admiration, were 
fixed in silence and astonishment ; they 
condemned themselves for having under- 
taken the office, and soon returned to the 
rulers of Israel without performing it. 

If our Lord had pleaded for his life 
before the officers of the council who were 
sent to apprehend him, the success of his 
eloquence, even in that case, had been 
truly wonderful ; but in the case before 
us, it surely was superior to all praise, for 
in a discourse addressed to others, and even 
on a spiritual subject, it disarmed a band 
of inveterate enemies, and made them his 
friends. 

Nor were the officers the only persons 
affected by this discourse ; for many of 
them declared that he must be one of the 
old prophets; and others, that he was no 
other than the Messiah himself. Some, 
however, led away with the common mis- 
take that he was born at Nazareth, asked, 
with disdain, if the Messiah was to come 
out of Galilee ? and, whether they would 
acknowledge a Galilean for the Messiah, 
when the Scripture had absolutely declared 
that he was to be born in Bethlehem, the 
native town of his father David ? Many of 
the people therefore, when they heard this 
saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. 
Others said, This is the Christ. Bat some 
said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee ? 
Hath not the Scripture said, That Christ 
cometh of the seed of David, and out of the 
town of Bethlehem, where David was ? John 
vii. 40, 41, 42. 

Such were the dissensions on this sub- 
ject, that some of his enemies, knowing 
that the officers were sent to apprehend 
him, threatened to lay hands on him : 
but the Almighty would not suffer them 



JESUS CHRIST; 121 

to execute their wicked design. And some 
of them would have taken him ; but no man 
laid hands on him, John vii. 44. 

The officers now returned to the council, 
and were asked why they had not brought 
Jesus of Nazareth ? To whom the officers 
answered, Never man spake like this num. 
This reply enraged the council, who re- 
viled them for presuming to entertain a 
favourable opinion of one whom they had 
pronounced an impostor. It is strange, 
said they, that you, who are not ignorant 
of our sentiments concerning this person, 
should entertain a favourable idea of him. 
Have any persons of rank, or celebrated 
for their knowledge of the laws, believed 
on him ? Are not his followers the lower 
order of the people, who are totally igno- 
rant of all the prophecies concerning the 
Messiah ? 

The officers made no answer to these 
railing accusations of their masters; but 
Nicodemus, a member of the council, ar- 
raigned their conduct in a very poignant 
manner : Does our law, (says he,) con- 
demn any man before he has been heard ? 
They had before condemned their officers 
for being ignorant of the law, when it ap- 
peared they were themselves far more ig- 
norant in pretending to condemn a person 
before they had proved him guilty. They 
were acting directly contrary to the fun- 
damental principles of the law of equity, 
at the time they boasted of their profound 
knowledge of its precepts. 

Incensed at this reprimand of Nicode- 
mus, they asked him, with an air of disdain 
and surprise, if he was also one of those 
mean persons who had joined together to 
support the pretences of a Galilean ? tho' 
the Scripture had plainly said, that Beth- 
lehem was the place of the Messiah's na- 
tivity: adding, that if he refused to listen 
to them, he should soon be convinced that 

H h the 



122 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



the great prophet mentioned by Moses was 
not to be born in Galilee. Art thou also of 
Galilee ? Search and look ; for out of Galilee 
ariseth no prophet, John vii. 52. 

Having made this reply to Nicodemus, 
the council broke up, and Jesus, who well 
knew their malicious intentions, retired to 
the mount of Olives, where he spent the 
night with his disciples. 

Our blessed Lord early the following 
morning returned to the temple, and again 
taught the people. The Scribes and Pha- 
risees now determined to render him odious 
to the multitude, or obnoxious to the Ro- 
man governor ; and therefore placed before 
him a woman that had been taken in the 
act of adultery, desiring his opinion what 
punishment she ought to suffer. This woman, 
said they to Jesus, was taken in adultery, in 
the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded 
us, that such should be stoned : but what sayest 
thou ? John viii. 4, 5. 

Had our Lord disapproved the sentence 
of the law, they would doubtless have re- 
presented him to the multitude as a person 
who contradicted Moses, and favoured 
adultery ; which could not have failed of 
rendering him odious to the people. On 
the other hand, had he ordered her to be 
stoned, it would have afforded a plausible 
pretence for accusing him to the Roman 
governor as a person who stirred up the 
people to rebellion, the Romans having 
now taken the power of life and death into 
their own hands. 

But Jesus, who well knew their mali- 
cious intentions, made them no answer, 
but stooped down, and with his finger wrote 
on the ground, as though he heard them not, 
John viii. 6. 

They, however, still continued pressing 
him to give an answer, and, at last, Jesus, 
in allusion to the law, which ordered that 
the hands of the witnesses, by whose testi- 



mony an adulterer was convicted, should 
be first upon him, said, He that is without 
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at 
her. Let those who are remarkably zealous 
for having justice executed upon others, at 
least take care to purify themselves from all 
heinous crimes. 

This reply had its desired effect. The 
hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees were 
convicted of sin by their own consciences ; 
so that they immediately retired, fearing 
Jesus would have made their particular sins 
public. And they which heard it, being con- 
victed by their own conscience, went out one by 
one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last, 
John viii. 9- 

The woman's accusers being all retired, 
Jesus told her, that as no man had pro- 
nounced sentence of death upon her, neither 
would he pronounce it: but advised her to 
be very careful, for the future, to avoid the 
temptations which had induced her to com- 
mit so black a crime. 

The wisdom, knowledge, and power, of 
our blessed Saviour, were eminently dis- 
played on this occasion : his wisdom, in 
defending; himself against the malicious 
attempts of his enemies ; his knowledge, 
in discovering the secrets of their hearts; 
and his power, in making use of their own 
consciences to render their artful inten- 
tions abortive. It was therefore with 
remarkable propriety, that the great Re- 
deemer of mankind now called himself the 
light of the world ; as if he had said, I 
am the spiritual sun, that dispels the 
darkness of ignorance and superstition, in 
which the minds of men are immersed, 
and discovers the path that leads to eternal 
life ; nor shall any who follow me ever be 
involved in darkness. I am the light of 
the world : he that followeth me shall not walk 
in darkness, but shall have the light of life, 
John viii. 12. 

This 



AND SAVIOUR, 

This assertion of our Lord highly pro- 
voked the Pharisees, who told him he 
must be a deceiver, because he boasted 
of himself. To which the great Redeemer 
of mankind replied, You are not to 
imagine that I called myself the light of 
the world from a principle of pride and 
falsehood ; that title justly belongs to me : 
nor would you yourselves refuse to ac- 
knowledge it, did you know from what 
authority I received my commission, and 
to whom, when I have executed it, I must 
return. But of these things ve are totallv 
ignorant, and therefore judge according 
to outward appearance, and condemn 
me because I do not destroy those who 
oppose me, as you vainty think the Mes- 
siah will do those who shall refuse to 
submit to his authority. But the design 
of the Messiah's coming is very different 
from your mistaken notions ; he is not 
come to destroy, but to save the children 
of men. Though I bear record of myself, 
yet my record is true ; for I know whence 
I came, and whither I go : but ye cannot 
tell whence I come, and whither I go. Ye 
judge after the flesh, I judge no man, John 
viii. 14, 15. He added, that if he should 
condemn any person for unbelief, the con- 
demnation would be just, because his 
mission was true, being confirmed by his 
own testimony, and that of his almighty 
Father the God of Jacob, by whose au- 
thority, and agreeable to whose will, all 
his sentences would be passed. And yet 
if I judge, my judgment is true : for I am 
not alone, but I and the Father that sent 
me, John viii. 16. 

Having thus asserted the divinity of his 
mission, and shewn that his judgment was 
just, he proceeded to inform them that his 
Father himself bare witness to the truth of 
his mission. You cannot, said he, justly 
complain, even if I should punish you for 



JESUS CHRIST. 123 

your unbelief, because you are, by your 
own laws, commanded to believe the tes- 
timony of two witnesses, that my mission 
evidently is true. For the actions of my 
life, which are perfectly agreeable to the 
character of a messenger from heaven, 
bear sufficient witness of me ; and the Fa- 
ther, by the miracles he has enabled me to 
perform, beareth witness of me: ye are 
therefore altogether culpable in objecting 
to my mission. It is also written in your 
law, that the testimony of two men is true. I 
am one that beareth witness of myself, and the 
Father that sent me beareth witness of me, 
John viii. 17, 18. 

The Jews then asked him, AVhere is 
thy Father, the other witness to whom 
thou appealest? Jesus replied, Your con- 
duct sufficiently demonstrates that ye are 
strangers both to me and my Father ; 
for had ye known who I am, ye must 
have also known who it is I call my 
Father; had ye been convinced that I am 
the Messiah, you must also have been 
convinced that the Father is no other than 
that omnipotent Being, who created and 
upholds all things by the word of his 
power. Then said they itnto him, Where is 
thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know 
me nor my Father : if ye had known me, ye 
should have known my Father also, John 
viii. 19. 

This discourse, the evangelist tells us, 
was held in the treasury, a court of the 
temple, where the chests were placed for 
receiving the offerings of all who came up 
to worship in the temple ; and therefore 
must have been a place of great resort, be- 
ing frequented by all, even the priests and 
rulers. But notwithstanding the public 
manner in which our blessed Saviour now 
asserted his claim to the character of the 
Messiah, no man attempted to seize him ; 
Providence not suffering them to put their 

malicious 



124. 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



malicious designs in execution, because his 
hour, or the time of his sufferings, was not 
yet come. 

The debate beins; ended, Jesus aoain 
repeated what he had before told them ; 
namety, that he should shortly depart 
from them ; and that they should then seek 
him, but not be able to find him. I go my 
way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in 
your sins : whither I go ye cannot come, 
.John viii. 21. As if he had said, After 
my ascension into heaven, when the Ro^ 
man armies shall spread horror and de- 
solation in eveiy corner of the land, ye 
shall then earnestly wish for the coming of 
the Messiah, in expectation of being de- 
livered by his powerful arm from your 
cruel enemy : but ye shall then find your 
mistake; }~e shall die in your sins, and be 
for ever excluded from the mansions of 
happiness. 

The Jews by no means comprehended 
this departure of which our Lord told 
them. They even fancied he would de- 
stroy himself, because they thought the 
only retreat where they could not find 
him was the gloomy habitation of the 
grave. To which the blessed Jesus re- 
plied, Your vile insinuation discovers at 
once the wickedness of your hearts, and 
the baseness of your original. Ye are 
from the earth, and therefore subject to all 
the evil passions that infect human nature ; 
and from the dictates of your own hearts, 
you fancy that I can be capable of com- 
mitting the horrid crime of self-murder. 
But my extraction is very different ; it is 
from heaven; and, consequently, my mind 
is not tainted with the corruption of hu- 
man nature, the source of temptation to 
every sin. Y r ou therefore must believe 
that I am the bread of life, the heavenly 
manna, the light of the world, the true 
Messiah, if you are desirous of being 



cleansed from those pollutions which flow 
from your earthly origin : but if you still 
continue in your unbelief, you shall die in 
your sins. 

The Jews now, in order to vindicate 
themselves, demanded what sort of person 
he pretended to be? To which Jesus an- 
swered, Even the same that I said unto you 
from the beginning, that is, at the beginning 
of this discourse, the light of the world. 
Adding, I have many things to say, and to 
judge of you : but he that sent me is true ; 
and I speak to the world those things which I 
have heard of him, John viii. 26. 

This discourse, however plain it may 
appear, was not understood by the per- 
verse Jews ; they did not perceive that he 
spake to them of the Father. But Jesus told 
them, that when they crucified him they 
would be convinced, by the miracles ac- 
companying that awful hour, the resurrec- 
tion from the dead, the effusion of the Holy 
Spirit on his disciples, and the destruction 
of the Jewish nation, who he was, and the 
Father that sent him. When ye have lifted 
up the Son of man, then ye shall know that I 
am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but 
as my Father hath taught me, I speak these 
things, John viii. 28. 

He added, that though he should be 
crucified as a malefactor, that punishment 
w T ould not be inflicted on him as a conse- 
quence of his being deserted by his Father; 
because he would never leave him in any 
period of his sufferings, or even at the hour 
of his death, as he always acted agreeably 
to his will. 

These words induced many of the peo- 
ple to believe him to be the Messiah. 
Perhaps by lifting him up, they did not 
understand his crucifixion, but his ascen- 
sion to the throne of David ; and hence 
supposed, that he now entertained senti- 
ments worthy of the Messiah, and were 

therefore 



AND SAVIOUR, 

therefore very ready to acknowledge him 
as such, and believe the doctrine he had 
delivered concerning his mission. But 
Jesus told them, that if they persevered in 
the belief and practice of his word, they 
should in reality become his disciples, 
have a title to that honourable appellation, 
be fully instructed in every doctrine of the 
gospel, and not only freed from the slavery 
of sin and its consequences, but also from 
the ceremonial laws delivered by Moses. 
If ye continue in my word, then are ye my 
disciples indeed: and ye shall know the truth, 
and the truth shall make you free, John viii. 
31, 32. 

The Jews, on hearing him mention that 
they should be made free, answered, We be 
Abraham s seed, and were never in bondage to 
any man. This assertion, if taken literally, 
was absolutely false, the whole nation, at 
that very time, being in bondage to the 
Romans ; nor were their ancestors any 
strangers to slavery, having severely felt 
the hand of tyranny, both in Egypt, Assy- 
ria, and Babylon. The expression there- 
fore, according to some writers, must be 
taken in a metaphorical sense, to signify 
spiritual bondage ; it was a freedom by 
truth, a freedom in respect of religion, 
which they now asserted. They meant 
that they were the descendants of illustrious 
ancestors ; and, during the worst of times, 
had preserved sentiments in religion and 
government worthy the posterity of Abra- 
ham; nor had the hottest persecution of 
the Assyrian kings been able to compel 
them to embrace the religion of the Hea- 
thens. In respect of truth, we zvere never 
in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye 
, shall be made free? 

In answer to this question, Jesus told 
them, that those who gave themselves up 
to the practice of sin, and the gratification 
of their sinful appetites, were absolute 



JESUS CHRIST. 12.3 

slaves; and how far they might deserve 
that appellation, it was incumbent on them 
to consider. Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
If hosoevcr commit tit h sin is the servant of sin. 
And as a slave cannot be assured of the 
continuance of his master's favour, or cer- 
tain of abiding continually in the family : 
so my Father can, when he pleases, discard 
such habitual sinners, deprive you of the 
external economy of religion, in which 
you so highly boast; as you have, through 
sin, rendered yourselves bond-men to his 
justice. If ye are desirous of becoming 
the children of God, and of remaining foi 
ever in his family, you must submit to the 
authority of his Son, and embrace his 
doctrine, which will induce him to adopt 
you as coheirs with himself. It is he only 
that can make j^ou free indeed, and place 
you in the city of the heavenly Jerusa- 
lem, without the least danger of being re- 
moved. I well know that you are in a 
natural sense the seed of Abraham, but in 
a moral one the offspring of Satan ; for 
many of you are desirous of destroying me, 
because I enjoin a greater degree of 
sanctity than you are willing to acquire. 
I know that ye are Abrahams seed ; but ye 
seek to kill me, because my word hath no 
place in you. I speak that which I have seen 
with my Father ; and ye do that which you 
have seen with your father. They answered 
and said unto him, Abraham is our father, 
John viii. 37, 38, 39- 

Notwithstanding their claim to imme- 
diate descent from that lather of the faith- 
ful, Jesus told them, that if they were the 
spiritual progeny of Abraham, they would 
resemble that great and good man in his 
righteousness; and therefore, instead of 
endeavouring to take away the life of a 
person who came with a revelation from 
God, they would believe on him, in imi- 
tation of Abraham, who was justly st vied 

Ii 'the 



126 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



the father of the faithful, and the friend of 
God. If ye were Abraham's children, ye 
would do the works of Abraham. But now ye 
seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the 
truth, which I have heard of God; this did 
not Abraham, John viii. 39, 40. 

Jesus added, that their deeds sufficiently 
shewed whose children they were, and 
from what stock they were descended ; 
even from the great deceiver of mankind : 
who goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking 
whom he may devour. 

The Jews at length discovered the pur- 
port of our Lord's meaning, and accord- 
ingly replied, that they were undoubtedly 
in that sense the children of God, as they 
were certainly not born of fornication ; 
alluding to the marriage-covenant, which 
in scripture is metaphorically said to sub- 
sist between God and the people of Israel, 
and by which their obligation to love, ho- 
nour, and obey him, was represented in a 
very lively manner. We are neither, said 
the Jews, idolatrous ourselves, nor sprung 
from idolatrous parents ; consequently we 
are, with respect to a spiritual descent, 
the children of God. We be not bom of 
fornication ; we have one Father, even God, 
John viii. 41. 

But Jesus told them, that an outward 
profession of the true religion was of no 
consequence. They must love it in deed 
and in .truth, if they hoped to be in reality 
the children of God : and if they truly 
loved religion, they must love him who 
came down from heaven on purpose to 
reveal it to the sons of men. Adding, that 
he did not come of himself, but was sent 
by the great Creator of the universe. If 
God were your Father, ye would love me ; for 
I proceeded forth and came from God ; nei- 
ther came I of myself, but he sent me, John 
viii. 42. 

But ye, continued the blessed Jesus, 



inherit the nature of your father the devil ; 
and therefore will continue to gratify the 
lusts ye have derived from him. He was 
an enemy to, and a murderer of mankind 
from the beginning, and has ever since ex- 
erted his whole power to work their de- 
struction ; sometimes by seducing them 
into sin by his falsities, and sometimes by 
instigating them to kill those whom God 
thought proper to send to reclaim them. 
And having early departed from holiness 
and truth, a custom of lying is become 
habitual to him. Being therefore a liar, 
and the father of lying, when he speaketh 
a falsity he speaketh what is properly his 
own. But 1 tell you the truth: and there- 
fore it is natural to think that ye will dis- 
believe me. Ye are of your father the devil, 
and the lusts of your father ye will do : he 
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode 
not in the truth, because there is no truth in 
him. If hen he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of 
his own : for he is a liar, and the father of it. 
And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me 
not, John viii. 44, 45. 

Thpugh ye dare even to reject my doc- 
trine, are any of you able to shew that I 
have not received my commission from 
heaven, or that I have done any thing that 
has a tendency to render me unworthy of 
belief? Can you shew that I have taught 
false doctrines, reproved you unjustly for 
your actions, or been guilty myself of sin ? 
If you are unable to do this, but, on the 
contrary, must acknowledge that my doc- 
trine and life are such as become a mes- 
senger of God, what reason can ye pretend 
for not believing me ? And if, in affirming 
that I am perfectly free from sin, I say the 
truth, why do ye not believe me? Whoever 
is of God, receives, with the greatest hu- 
mility, whatever revelations God is pleased 
to make of himself by his messengers, and 
makes it his study and delight to obey all 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST 



127 



his commandments. But ye reject the re- 
velations and precepts of the Almighty, 
delivered by me, who came down from 
heaven, for no other reason than because 
ye are not the children of God. lie that 
is of God, heareth God's words: ye therefore 
hear them not, because ye are not of God, 
John viii. 47. 

The Jews, still attached to their lineal 
descent, replied, that his calling the de- 
scendants of Abraham the children of the 
devil, was a sufficient proof that he was 
either a very profligate wretch himself, or 
instigated by some evil spirit. But Jesus 
told them he was neither mad nor actuated 
by an evil spirit. On the contrary, he 
honoured his Father, by speaking the words 
of truth, which he had sent him to deliver ; 
and therefore they dishonoured him in 
calling him by so opprobrious a title. 
Adding, that he sought not their applause, 
but referred their conduct to an omniscient 
and impartial Judge. And I seek not my 
own glory : there is one that secketh andjudg- 
eth, John viii. 50. 

Our Lord having declared his mighty 
and divine power, asserts the happy effects 
of faith and obedience to the gospel. 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep 
my saying, he shall never see death, John 
viii. 51. On this declaration, the Jews 
(who were total strangers to our Lord's 
spiritual meaning of death) cried out, Now 
we sufficient])" know that thou art pos- 
sessed with a devil ; for the most righteous 
persons that ever flourished among the sons 
of men are dead : Abraham, and the pro- 
phets, and other holy men, are all laid in 
the chambers of the dust ; and thou 
hast the impudence and folly to affirm, 
that whoever keeps thy precepts shall 
never die. Thou surely canst not think 
nor pretend to be more in favour with the 
Almighty than Abraham and the prophets 



were, who, though the strictest observers 
of the divine precepts, could not obtain 
the privilege of being themselves exempt 
from the stroke of death, much less for 
their followers. Now we know that thou hast 
a devil: Abraham is dead, and the prophets ; 
and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, lie 
shall never ta.ste of death. Art thou greater 
than our father Abraham, which is dead ? 
and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou 
thyself ? John viii. 52, 53. 

In reply to this impertinent query, the 
Messiah returned, If 1 should attempt to 
speak in praise of myself, you would call 
it vain and foolish, and, like the Pharisees, 
tell me, Thou bearest record of thyself ; thy 
record is not true. Instead, therefore, of 
piving you a full description of my dig- 
nity, I shall only inform you, that it is my 
Father who speaketh honourably of me, 
b} r the many miracles he enables me to 
perform. And surely this may be suffi- 
cient to convince you of what 1 have pro- 
mised to my disciples ; especially when I 
tell you that my Father is no other than the 
Almighty God of Jacob, whom all the de- 
scendants of Abraham pretend to worship. 
But though you vainly boast of worship- 
ping my Father as your God, you are 
ignorant of him ; you neither form just 
conceptions of him, nor worship him in 
the manner you ought. Your knowledge 
and actions, therefore, disagree with your 
profession ; but, on the contrary, 1 enter- 
tain proper ideas of him, and obey his 
precepts. You may, perhaps, construe this 
declaration as proceeding from vanity: but 
if I should say, I do not form adequate 
conceptions of him, or acknowledge him 
as he deserves, I should be a liar like unto 
you. Even your father Abraham, of whom 
you so highly boast, earnestly desired to 
behold the time when I, the promised 
seed, should put on the vail of human 

nature, 



128 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



nature, and convert the nations of the 
world from their ignorance and idolatry, 
to the knowledge and worship of the true 
God. He earnestly desired to see the 
great transactions of ray life, by which 
this invaluable blessing was to be pro- 
cured for all the sons of men ; and view 
the happy state of all nations, when this 
blessing was bestowed upon them. This 
was granted him ; he saw it, and zzm glad. 
He was favoured with the ravishing pros- 
pect of these happy times, then con- 
cealed in the womb of futurity, and was 
exceedingly transported with the scene. 
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my 
day; and lie saw it, and was glad, John 
viii. 56. 

The Jews, still blind to the spiritual 
meaning of our Lord's words, concluded 
he had affirmed that he was before Abra- 
ham; and knowing he was not yet fifty 
years old, considered it as absolutely 
ridiculous. They had no conception of 
his divine nature, though he had so often 
told them he was the Son of God, and 
consequently existed w r ith the Father be- 
fore this world was called from its primitive 
chaos. This gross stupidity and perverse- 
ness induced the Saviour of the world to 
assert his dignity in still plainer terms ; 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abra- 
ham was, I am, John viii. 58. 

The Jews, incensed at our Lord's prior 
claim to Abraham in point of existence, 
rushed on him, and attempted to stone 
him; but J esus, by miraculously concealing 
himself, passed unhurt through the crowd, 
and retired out of the temple. 

With what patience did our blessed Re- 
deemer bear, and with what meekness of 
wisdom did he answer, the most virulent 
and opprobrious language. And shall we 
too keenly resent the reflections which are 
thrown upon us? May but our conscience 



witness for us, and we need not fear all 
that are against us ! 

CHAP. XIX. 

Our Lord continues to work Miracles in Con- 
firmation of his Mission and Doctrine. — 
Calls forth and sends out seventy Disciples. 
— Preaches to the People of Judea, by way 
of Parable. 

HE great Preacher of Israel, having 
defeated the cruel designs of the 
obstinate Jews, in passing on his way 
saw a man who had been blind from 
his birth. The sight of so affecting an 
object could not fail to excite the com- 
passion of the benevolent Saviour of man- 
kind. Nor could the affronts and indig- 
nities he had just received from the 
Jews hinder him from working the works 
of him that sent him, and dispensing bless- 
ings on that rebellious and ungrateful 
nation. Accordingly, he beheld this poor 
blind man, not with a transient view, 
but fixed on him the eyes of pity, and 
presented him with the riches of his 
adorable love. 

The disciples observing the affectionate 
regard of their Master to this object of 
compassion, and probably imagining that 
he was going to extend his usual mercy to 
this unfortunate object, asked their Master 
whether his blindness was occasioned by 
his own sin, or the sin of his parents ? 
They had often heard their Master saj r , 
that atilictions were commonly the punish- 
ment of particular sins ; and had le arneu , 
from the law of Moses, that sin was the 
fruitful source of evil; and that the Lord 
punished the iniquities of the fathers upon 
the children. Their Master kindly an- 
swered, that neither his own nor the sins 
of his parents were the immediate cause 




AND SAVIOUR, 

of this peculiar affliction , but that he was 
born blind, that the works of God should be 
made manifest in him ; particularly his sove- 
reignty in bringing him blind into the 
world, his power in conferring the faculty 
of sight upon him, and his goodness in 
bearing witness to the doctrine by which 
men are to be saved. 

We may learn by this pertinent reply of 
the Saviour of the world, that a curious 
inquiry into the cause of afflictions in 
other men may be safely avoided ; and 
that we ought to suppose every calamity 
subservient to the glory of Omnipotence ; 
never imputing to their personal sins what- 
ever miseries we behold in others, lest, like 
the disciples in the present case, we assign 
to sin what owes its origin to the glory of 
our Maker. 

Having assigned the cause of this per- 
son's blindness, namely, that the works of 
God should be made manifest in him, Jesus 
added, I must work the works of him that 
sent me while it is day: the niglit cometh 
wlien no man can work, John ix. 4. Inti- 
mating to his disciples, and all the sons of 
men, his unwearied labour in the work of 
his almighty Father. In this he was em- 
ployed day and night, during the time of 
his sojourning in the flesh. To this alone 
he directed all his thoughts and all his in- 
tentions. This he esteemed even as his 
meat and drink: and for this he suffered 
the neglect of his ordinary food, that he 
might finish the blessed, the beneficent work 
of human salvation. A work, to accomplish 
which he left the courts of heaven ; and, 
during the execution of it, went about doing 
good. 

It was now the sabbath-day, and the 
blessed Jesus was going to perform a mi- 
racle, in which there was to be a small 
degree of servile work : and therefore he 
told his disciples, that they need not be 



JESUS CHRIST. 129 

surprised to see him work miracles of that 
kind on the sabbath-day. For though they 
should imagine that lie might defer them 
till the day of rest was over, his finie on 
earth was so short, that it was necessary 
for him to embrace every opportunity that 
offered of working miracles. Perhaps he 
chose to perform this work on the sabbath 
because he knew the Pharisees would, for 
that reason, inquire into it with the utmost 
attention, and consequently render it more 
generally known. 

But however this be, our blessed Sa- 
viour, who was now going to confer sight 
on one that was born blind, took occasion 
from thence to speak of himself as one 
appointed to give light also to the minds 
of men involved in darkness. As long as 
I am in the world, I am the light of the world, 
John xi. 5. 

It appears from hence, that our Saviour's 
miracles were designed not only as proofs 
of his mission, but also as specimens of the 
power he possessed as the Messiah. For 
example, by feeding the multitude with 
the meat that perisheth, he signified that 
he was come to quicken and nourish man- 
kind with the bread of life, that sovereign 
cordial and salutary nutriment of the soul. 
His giving sight to the blind, was a lively 
emblem of the efficacy of his doctrine to 
illuminate the blinded understandings of 
men. His healing their bodies, represented 
his power to heal their souls, and was a 
specimen of his authority to forgive sins, 
as it was a real, though a partial, re- 
moval of its punishment. His casting out 
devils, was an earnest of his final victory 
over Satan and all his powers : his raising- 
particular persons from the dead, was the 
beginning of his triumph over death, and 
a demonstration of his ability to accom- 
plish a general resurrection ; and, in a 
word, his curing all promiscuously who 

K k applied 



130 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



applied to him, shewed that he was come, 
not to condemn the world, but to save 
even the chief of sinners. Accordingly, 
at or soon after performing of these mi- 
racles, when the memory of them was fresh 
in the minds of his hearers, we often find 
him turning his discourse to the spiritual 
things they represented. 

Having declared the salutary design of 
his coming into the world, he spat on the 
ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he 
anointed the eyes of the blind man with the 
clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool 
of Siloam, ( which is by interpretation, Sent.) 
He went his zmy therefore, and washed, and 
came seeing, John ix. 6, 7- 

From former examples, it is evident that 
our blessed Saviour could as easily have 
performed this miracle without the assist- 
ance of any external means. Indeed, those 
the great Redeemer of mankind made use 
of on this occasion were so far from being 
likely to effect the cure, that they seemed 
properly adapted to produce a quite con- 
trary effect. We must, therefore, conclude 
that they were intended to direct our atten- 
tion to higher mysteries, and shew us, as in 
a glass, that it was through the same divine 
power, who at first created man out of the 
dust of the earth, and gave sight to his eyes, 
that fallen men were now restored and re- 
generated, and the cement of sin, which 
closed their eyes, was wiped away. 

This person seems to have known the 
power of the Redeemer, or at least to 
have been informed by some person near 
him who Jesus was, the fame of whose mira- 
cles had been published in every corner 
of Judea. Indeed, we cannot otherwise 
account for the implicit and ready obedi- 
ence paid him by the blind man ; who 
was amply rewarded for his faith and con- 
fidence, by receiving the invaluable gift 
of sight. 



This miraculous operation could not fail 
of producing a general curiosity and sur- 
prise : it induced those who had seen this 
blind man in his dark and deplorable con- 
dition, to be very particular in their inqui- 
ries into the means of so singular a miracle. 
It was doubtless the subject of general 
conversation ; and it is natural to think, 
should also have proved the means of a 
general conversion ; but, as it too fre- 
quently happens, a perverse curiosity pre- 
vented its salutary effects upon their souls. 
Unbelief, and hardness of heart, led some 
of them even to doubt of the plainest fact ; 
a fact the most evident and indisputable, 
and plainly the work of the Divinity : and 
others, to persecute at once both the ob- 
ject and the author of it ! The neighbours, 
therefore, and they which before had seen him 
that he zc-as blind, said, Is not this he that sat 
and begged? Some said, This is he: others 
said, He is like him : but he said, I am he, 
John ix. 8, 9- 

The man, transported with gratitude 
and joy, and perceiving his neighbours to 
doubt of the identity of his person, pro- 
claimed himself to be the very same 
whom they lately saw begging in total 
darkness. I am he thus wonderfully blest 
with sight, by the peculiar mercy of the 
Almighty ! I am he, who was blind from 
my birth, whom ye have all seen, and 
many relieved in my miserable distress ! 
I am he who was, even from my mother's 
womb, involved in total darkness, but now 
enjoy the enlivening light of day ! 

So ingenuous an acknowledgment of the 
fact excited their curiosity to know how 
this admirable effect was produced. How 
were thine eyes opened? To this question he 
readily replied, A man that is called Jesus 
made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said 
nnto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash ; 
and I went and washed, and I received sight, 

John 



AND SAVIOUR, 

John ix. 11. They then asked him, where 
the person was who had performed so 
stupendous a work ? To which the man 
answered, I know not: for Jesus had re- 
tired while the man went to wash his eyes 
in the pool of Siloam, probably to avoid 
the applauses which would naturally have 
been given him, and which we see, through 
the whole Gospel, he generally studied to 
avoid. 

The neighbours, either stimulated by 
envy, or excited by a desire of having the 
truth of this extraordinary event searched 
to the bottom, brought the man before the 
council, as the proper judges of this affair. 
Accordingly, he was no sooner placed 
before the assembly, than the Pharisees 
began to question him, hozv he had recovered 
his sight? Not daunted by this awful 
assembly, though terrible to a man of his 
mean circumstances, he boldly answered, 
lie put clay on mine eyes, and I washed, and 
do see, John ix. 15. 

On hearing this account of the miracle, 
the Pharisees declared, that the author of 
it must be an impostor, because he had, 
by performing of it, violated the sabbath- 
day. But others, more candid in their 
way of thinking, gave it as their opinion, 
that no deceiver could possibly work a 
miracle of that kind, because it was too 
great and beneficial for any evil being to 
have either the inclination or power to 
perform. 

The court being thus divided in their 
opinions with regard to the character of 
Jesus, they asked the man himself, what 
he thought of the person who had con- 
ferred on him the blessing of sight? To 
which he boldly and plainly answered, 
He is a prophet. But the Jews, wanting to 
prove the whole a cheat, started another 
objection, namely, that this person was 
not born blind, though all his neigh- 



JESUS CHRIST. 131 

bours had really testified the truth of if. 
Accordingly, they called his parents, and 
asked them, Whether he was their son ? if 
he had been born blind ? and by what 
means he had obtained his sight ? To 
which they answered, that he was truly 
their son, and had been born blind ; but 
with regard to the manner in which he 
received his sight, and the person who 
had conferred it on him, they could giro 
no information; their son was of age, and 
he should answer for himself. These words 
spake his parents, because they feared the 
Jews : for the Jews had agreed already, that 
if any man did confess that he was Christ, 
he should be put out of the synagogue, John 
ix. 22. 

This proves that the convictions of con- 
science act powerfully on the mind : the 
parents of this blind man well knew by 
what means their son had received his 
sight ; and, like him, they should have 
glorified the divine hand that had wrought 
so marvellous a work, and dared to have 
confessed him before all men, whatever 
dangers might have threatened them. Let 
us learn from hence, to fear our own, 
and to pity human frailty, and to implore 
the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to 
give us courage and resolution in the 
day of trial ; and let us take care, not to 
love the praise of men more than the praise 
of God. 

The Pharisees finding that all attempts, 
either to discredit or disprove the fact, were 
useless, had recourse to their usual method 
of calumniating the author of it. They 
called again the man that was blind, and 
said unto him, Give God the praise : we know 
that this man is a sinner, John ix. 24. To 
which the man boldly answered these rulers 
of Israel, 11 licther he be a sinner or )io, I 
k/urw not : one thing I know, that, wliereas I 
was blind, now I sec, John ix. 25. 

This 



132 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



This reply prevailed not with the obsti- 
nate Jews ; they were desirous of con- 
founding him with repeated questions, 
and the art of sophistry, and accordingly 
asked him, What did he to thee? How open- 
ed he thine eyes? They had before asked 
those questions, but now proposed them a 
second time, in order that the man, by re- 
peating his account of the servile work 
performed at the cure, might become sen- 
sible that Jesus had thereby violated the 
sabbath, and consequently must be an im- 
postor. Thus the enemies of our dear Re- 
deemer would gladly have prevailed on the 
person who had received the invaluable 
gift of sight, to join with them in the judg- 
ment they passed on the great person who 
had wrought so stupendous a miracle. 
But their obstinacy in denying the truth 
appeared so criminal to him, that he boldly 
answered, I have told you already, and ye 
did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it 
again? will ye also be his disciples? John 
ix. 27- 

The council were highty exasperated at 
this retort. They reviled him, and said, Thou 
art his disciple ; but we are Moses' disciples. 
We know that God spake unto Moses : as for 
this fellow, we know not from whence he is, 
John ix. 28, 29- 

The poor man, incensed at their unbe- 
lief and hardness of heart, replied, It is 
very strange that you should not acknow- 
ledge the divine mission of a teacher who 
performs such astonishing miracles; for 
common sense sufficiently declares, that 
God never assists impostors in working- 
miracles ; and accordingly there cannot be 
found a single example, since the creation 
of the world, of any such person's open- 
ing the eyes of one born blind. My opi- 
nion therefore is, that if this man had not 
been sent by God, he could not work any 
miracle at all. The man answered and 



said unto them, Why, herein is a marvellous 
thing, that ye know not from whence he is, 
and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now, we 
know that God heareth not sinners; but if 
any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth 
his will, him he heareth. Since the world 
began was it not heard that any man opened 
the eyes of one that was born blind. If this 
man were not of God, he could do nothing, 
John ix. 30, &c. 

The honest man's arguments, though 
plain, were powerful, and founded upon 
truths they could not deny. They all 
owned that God heareth not sinners : they 
all knew that God heard Jesus, by the mi- 
racle he had wrought, which was a fact 
proved beyond any possibility of doubt, 
and was such as never man performed ; it 
therefore undeniably followed, that Jesus 
was not a sinner, but sent from God ; since 
otherwise he could do nothing. 

The Pharisees were not ignorant that 
this argument was conclusive ; they felt its 
whole force, and well knew that it could 
not be resisted. Accordingly, the}^ did not 
attempt to answer it, but had recourse to 
punishment and abusive language. Thou 
wicked, illiterate, impudent mortal, said 
they, whose understanding is still as blind 
as thy body lately was, and who wast born 
under the heaviest punishment of sin, dost 
thou pretend to instruct, in a matter of this 
kind, the guides of the people, and those 
who have rendered themselves eminent 
for their knowledge in the law? Thou wast 
altogether bom in sins, and dost thou teach 
us? John ix. 34. 

After their presumptuous taunts, the 
evangelist adds, that they cast him out ; that 
is, they passed on him the sentence of 
excommunication, which was the highest 
punishment they had power to inflict. But 
though he was cut oft* from the Jewish 
society, he was nevertheless thereby united 

to 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



133 



to one where no unjust sentences can ever 
be passed, nor any member be ever sepa- 
rated, during a joyful eternity. 

The presumption of the Pharisees should 
teach us to contemplate the various arts, 
and subtle endeavours, of all the adversaries 
and enemies of the gospel and cross of 
Christ; and not be surprised to find them, 
though in different shapes, employed against 
ourselves, if we zealously embrace the truth 
of Christ, as well as against all who are not 
afraid to confess, before all men, the glory 
of him who hath opened their eyes. It is 
impossible that the world should love those 
who boldly declare that its w r orks are evil. 
Let us not therefore be shaken when w r e 
come to experience it, but learn from this 
blind man, freely and openly to confess the 
faith, and to declare the power of that God, 
who hath brought us from darkness into his 
marvellous light, and turned our feet into 

o f. 

the way of peace. 

The feast of dedication now drew near. 
This solemnity was not appointed by Mo- 
ses, but by that heroic reformer, Judas 
Maccabeus, in commemoration of his hav- 
ing cleansed the temple, and restored its 
worship, after both had been polluted by 
Antiochus Epiphanes. 

Although this feast was merely of hu- 
man institution, Jesus determined to be 
present at it, even though he knew that 
farther attempts would be made against 
his life. His public ministry was indeed 
now drawing near its period ; and there- 
fore the blessed Jesus would not omit any 
opportunity of preaching to the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel, and of doing good to 
the children of men. Nor did he now, as 
he had formerly done, travel privately to 
the capital, but openly declare his inten- 
tions of going to Jerusalem, and set for- 
wards on his journey with great courage 
and resolution. 



The road from Galilee to Jerusalem lay 
through Samaria, and the inhabitants woe 
those which entertained the most invete- 
rate hatred against all who worshipped in 
Jerusalem. Jesus being no stranger t« 
this disposition of the Samaritans, thought 
proper to send messengers before him, that 
they might, against his arrival, find recep 
tion for him in one of the villages. The 
prejudiced Samaritans, finding the inten- 
tion of his journey was to worship in the 
temple at Jerusalem, refused to receive 
either him or his disciples into their 
houses. 

The messengers being thus disappointed, 
returned to Jesus, and gave him an ac- 
count of all that had passed ; at which 
James and John were so exceedingly in- 
censed, that they proposed to their Master 
to call fire from heaven, in order to de- 
stroy such inhospitable wretches; alleging, 
in excuse for such violent proceedings, the 
example of the prophet Elijah. Lord, wilt 
thou that we command fire to come down from 
heaven, and consume them, even as Ellas did? 
Luke ix. 54. 

Our Lord, desirous of displaying an 
example of humility on every occasion, 
sharply rebuked them for entertaining so 
unbecoming a resentment for this offence. 
Ye know not, said he, what manner of spirit 
ye are of. Ye are ignorant of the sinful- 
ness of the disposition ye have now ex- 
pressed ; nor do ye consider the difference 
of times, persons," and dispensations. The 
severity exercised by Elijah on the men 
who came from Ahab to apprehend him, 
was a just reproof of an idolatrous king 
and people ; very proper for the times, 
and very agreeable to the characters, both 
of the prophet who gave it, and of the 
offenders to whom it was given ; and, at 
the same time, not unsuitable to the Mosaic 
dispensation. But the gospel breathes a 

L 1 irerjl 



134 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



very different spirit: and the intention of 
the Messiah's coming into the world, was 
not to destrojr, but to save the lives of the 
children of men. 

Ye wise of this world, who reject saving 
knowledge, behold here an instance of 
patience, under a real and unprovoked 
injury, which you cannot parallel among 
all your boasted heroes of antiquity ! An 
instance of patience, which expressed infi- 
nite sweetness of disposition, and should 
be imitated by all the human race, espe- 
cially by those who call themselves the 
disciples of Christ. 

Being denied reception by the inhospi- 
table inhabitants of this Samaritan village, 
Jesus, attended by his disciples, directed 
his way towards another ; and as they tra- 
velled, a certain man said to him, Lord, I 
willfollozv thee whithersoever thou goest. But 
Jesus, to whom the secret purposes of all 
hearts were open, knowing he only desired 
the riches and honours of the Messiah's 
kingdom, thought proper to make him sen- 
sible of his mistake: and accordingly said 
to him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air 
have nests, but the Son of man hath not where 
to lay his head, Luke ix. 58. I am so far 
from boasting of a temporal kingdom, and 
the power and pomp attending it, that I 
have not even the accommodation provided 
for the beasts of the field and the fowls of 
the air. They have safe and secure re- 
treats ; but the Son of man is destitute of 
an habitation. 

Jesus, in the course of his wandering, 
met with one who had formerly been his 
disciple, and ordered him to disengage 
himself from all worldly employments, 
and to follow him ; but he was desirous of 
excusing himself for the present, under 
the pretence that he was bound by the 
ties of gratitude to continue with his aged 
father till death, and he had laid his re- 



mains in the sepulchre of his ancestors : 
Lord, said he, suffer me first to go and bury 
my father. To which Jesus answered, Let 
the dead bury their dead; but go thou and 
preach the kingdom of God, Luke ix. 60. 
Let those who are immersed in worldly 
affairs, follow the affairs of the world ; but 
those who have embraced the doctrines of 
the gospel, do every thing in their power 
to spread the glad tidings of salvation in 
every part of the earth. 

A third person offered to follow him, 
provided he would give him the liberty to 
return to his house, and take leave of his 
family : but Jesus told him, that he should 
not suffer any domestic affairs to interfere 
with the care of his salvation ; that the 
calls of religion were too pressing to admit 
of the least delay or excuse whatever ; and 
that all who set themselves to seek the 
welfare of their souls, should pursue the 
work assiduously, without looking care- 
lessly around them, as if they were regard- 
less of the work they had undertaken to 
perform. No man having put his hand to 
the plough, and looking back, is fit for the 
kingdom of God, Luke ix. 6'2. 

As our blessed Saviour's ministry was 
from this time till its final period to be 
confined to Judea, and the countries be- 
yond Jordan, it was necessary that some 
harbingers should be sent into every town 
and village he was to visit, to prepare his 
way. Accordingly, he called his seventy 
disciples unto him, and after instructing 
them in the duties of their mission, and the 
particulars they were to observe in their 
journey, he sent them into different parts 
of the country, to those particular places 
whither he himself intended to follow them, 
and preach the doctrines of the gospel to 
the inhabitants. 

Our Lord, according to his own decla- 
ration, dispatches these disciples on the 

same 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



same important message as he had done 
the twelve before. 

The harvest was plenteous in Judea and 
Perea, as well as in Galilee, and the la- 
bourers also few; and being never more to 
preach in Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Caper- 
naum, the cities wherein he had usually 
resided, he reflected on the reception he 
himself had met with from the inhabitants 
of those cities. He foresaw the terrible 
consequences that would flow from their 
rejecting his doctrine, and the many kind 
offers he had made them. He was grieved 
for their obstinacy ; and in the overflowing 
tenderness of his soul, he lamented the 
hardness of their hearts. If oe, said he, 
unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Beth- 
saida ! for if the mighty works had been done 
in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in 
you, they had a graat while ago repented, sit- 
ting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be 
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, at the 
judgment, than for you. And thou, Caper- 
naum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be 
thrust down to hell, Luke x. 13, 14, 15. To 
which our Saviour added, as some consola- 
tion to his disciples, He that heareth you* 
heareth me ; and he that despiseth you, de- 
spiseth me ; and he that despiseth me, despiseth 
him that sent me, Luke x. 16. 

Such a token of heavenly regard could 
not fail of comforting the seventy, and 
alleviating their minds when thinking of 
the ill usage they expected to meet with 
during the course of their mission. They 
well knew that the preaching of Christ 
himself had been often despised, and often 
unsuccessful, with respect to many of his 
hearers ; and, therefore, they had no very 
great reason to expect that they should 
find a more welcome reception than their 
Master. 

The seventy disciples, having received 
their instructions, and the power of work- 



ing miracles, from the Messiah, departed, 
to execute their important commission in 
the cities and villages qf Judea and Perea 
And after visiting the several places, pub- 
lishing the glad tidings of salvation, and 
working many miracles in confirmation of 
their mission, the}' returned to their Master 
with great joy, saying, Lord, even the devils 
are subject unto us through thy name ! 

From this appeal, it seems that they 
knew not the extent of their delegated 
power ; and were pleasingly surprised to 
find the apostate spirits tremble at their 
command. To which their great Master 
replied, T beheld Satan as lightning fall from 
heaven. You will be no longer astonished 
that the devils are subject to the power I 
have given you, when 1 tell you that their 
prince is not able to stand before me; and, 
accordingly, when I first put on the vail 
of human nature, to destroy him and his 
works, I saw him, with the swiftness of 
the lightning's liash, fall from heaven. 
Adding, in order to increase their joy, and 
prove that he had really cast Satan down 
from the seats of heaven, that he would 
enlarge their power. Behold, says he, / 
give unto you power to tread on serpents and 
scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy ; 
and nothing shall by any means hurt you, 
Luke x. 19- 

Lest they should exult beyond measure 
in the honour thus conferred on them, 
which was merely temporary, our Lord 
adds, Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that 
the spirits are subject unto you ; but rather 
rejoice, because your names are 'written i/i 
heaven, Luke x. 20. 

Nor could the blessed Jesus reflect on 
the unsearchable wisdom and goodness of 
the divine dispensations to mankind, with- 
out feeling; extraordinarv iov; so that his 
beneficent heart overflowed with stniins 
of gratitude : I thank thee, O Father, Lord 



136 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these 
things from the wise and prudent, and liast 
revealed them unto babes: even so, Father, 
for so it seemed good in thy sight, Luke 
x. 21. 

When the disciples had executed their 
commission, Jesus left Samaria, and re- 
tired into Judea, and in the way was met 
by a certain lawyer, or scribe, who being- 
desirous of knowing whether the doctrines 
preached by Jesus were the same with 
those before delivered by Moses, asked 
him, What he should do to inherit eternal 
life ? It is really amazing that any mortal 
should ask a question like this, with a view 
to tempt, not to be instructed ! This was, 
however, the case ; but the blessed Jesus, 
though no stranger to the most secret 
thoughts of the heart, did not reply, as he 
had before done to the Pharisees, Why 
temptest thou me, thou hypocrite ? He turned 
the scribe's weapons against himself: What, 
said he, is written in the law, of which 
thou professest thyself a teacher ? llozv 
readest thou? That law will teach thee 
what thou must do to be saved; and happy 
will it be for thee, if thou compliest with 
its precepts. The scribe answered, It is 
there written, Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy strength, and with 
all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself, 
Luke x. 27. 

Our Lord then shews the strength and 
spirituality of the law ; Thou hast answered 
right: this do, and thou shalt live. Perform 
these commands, and thou hast fulfilled 
the duties of an Israelite : for on these two 
commandments hang all the law and the 
prophets. 

Where is the man that can fulfil the law? 
The lawyer, who in all probability ex- 
pected no such answer, being conscious of 
his defects, and, consequently, of the im- 



possibility of obtaining eternal life on those 
conditions, was willing, as the sacred histo- 
rian informs us, to justify himself; was will- 
ing to stitie the rising suggestions of his 
own conscience, and at the same time to 
make a shew of his own devotion ; and in 
order to this, he said to Jesus, And who is 
my neighbour? A question very natural to 
be asked by a bigoted Jew r , whose narrow 
notions led him to despise all who were not 
of his own fold ; all who were not the na- 
tural descendants of his father Abraham. 

To remove their obstinate attachment to 
their own principles, open their hearts to a 
more generous and noble way of thinking, 
and shew them the only foundation of true 
love, and the extensive relation they and 
all mankind stand in to each other, our 
Saviour delivered the following most beau- 
tiful and instructive parable. 

A certain person, in his journey from Je- 
rusalem to Jericho, had the misfortune to 
fall into the hands of robbers, who not con- 
tent with taking his money, stripped him 
of his raiment, beat him in a deplorable 
manner, and left him for dead. While he 
continued in this miserable condition, ut- 
terly incapable of assisting himself, a cer- 
tain priest happened to travel the same 
road ; and when he sazv him, he passed by on 
the other side. And likewise a Levite, when 
he was at the place, came and looked on him, 
and passed by on the other side. So little 
compassion had these ministers of religion 
for a brother in the most deplorable cir- 
cumstances of distress, that they continued 
their journey, without offering to assist so 
miserable an object, notwithstanding their 
sacred characters obliged them to perform, 
on every occasion, the tender offices of 
charity and compassion. It was a brother, 
a descendant of Abraham, in distress; and 
therefore those hypocrites could offer no 
reasons to palliate their inhumanity. Their 

stony 



AND SAVIOUR, 

stony hearts could behold the affecting 
object of an unfortunate Israelite, lying- 
in the road naked and cruelly wounded, 
without being the least affected with his 
distress. 

Though these teachers of religion were 
hypocrites, and wholly destitute of grace 
and charity, compassion glowed in the 
heart of a Samaritan, who, coming to the 
spot where this helpless object lay, ran to 
him ; and though he found him to be a 
person of a different nation, and one who 
professed a religion opposite to his own, yet 
the hatred which had been instilled into 
his mind from his earliest } r ears, and every 
objection arising from the animosit}' subsist- 
ing between the Jews and Samaritans, were 
immediately silenced by the tender sensa- 
tions of pity, awakened by the sight of such 
complicated distress ; his bowels j^earned 
towards the miserable object; though a 
Jew, he flew to him, and assisted him in the 
most tender manner. 

It was the custom in these Eastern coun- 
tries for travellers to carry their provisions 
with them; so that this compassionate Sa- 
maritan was enabled, though in the desert, 
to give the wounded man a little wine to 
recruit his spirits. He also bound up his 
wounds, pouring into them wine and oil, 
placed him on his own beast, and walked 
himself on foot to support him. In this 
manner he conducted him to an inn, took 
care of him during the night; and in the 
morning, when business called him to pur- 
sue his journey, recommended him to the 
care of the host, left what money he could 
spare, and desired that nothing might be 
denied him ; for whatever was expended 
he would repay at his return. 

Having finished the parable, Jesus turned 
himself to the lawyer, and asked him, 
Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was 
neighbour to him that fell among the thieves? 



JESUS CHRIST. J37 

The lawyer, struck with the truth and evi- 
dence of the case, replied, without the least 
hesitation, He that shewed mercy unto him. 
Upon which Jesus replied, Go, and do thou 
likewise. Perform all the good oflices in 
thy power, extend thy kindness to every 
one who stands in need of thy assistance, 
whether he be an Israelite, an Heathen, or 
a Samaritan. Consider every man as thy 
neighbour in respect to works of charity, 
and make no inquiry with regard to his 
country or religion ; but only with regard 
to his circumstances. 

On examination of the particulars of 
this beautiful parable, we shall find that it 
is composed in the finest manner to work 
the conviction designed ; so that the lawyer, 
however desirous of considering those of 
the Jewish religion only as his neighbours, 
it was impossible for him to do it on this 
occasion. The Jews had lono- considered 
the favours of a Samaritan as a more 
detestable abomination than the eating- 
swine's flesh; yet, notwithstanding this pre- 
possession, the lawyer was obliged to ac- 
knowledge that neither the priest nor the 
Levite, but the travelling Samaritan, by 
discharging the great office of humanity 
to the Jew in distress, was truly his neigh- 
bour ; that the like humanity was due 
from an Israelite to a Samaritan in the 
like distressing circumstances ; and, conse- 
quently, that men are neighbours, without 
any regard to country, kindred, language, 
or religion. 

Mankind are intimately connected by 
their common wants, and their common 
weaknesses. Providence has formed them 
in such a manner, that they cannot subsist 
without the assistance of each other ; and, 
consequently, the relation subsisting be- 
tween them is as extensive as their natures, 
and their obligation to assist each other by 
mutual good offices as strong as the neces- 

M m sities 



138 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



sities of every individual. Our blessed 
Saviour hath, therefore, by this admirable 
parable, shewn that the heart is the seat of 
genuine grace, and that good principles will 
ever produce good actions. 

CHAP. XX. 

The humble Jesus resides with Martha and 
Mary, two obscure Women of Bethany. — 
Improves a Circumstance which occurred 
at the Feast of Dedication. — Prescribes a 
Mode of Prayer to his Disciples and f uture 
Followers. — Revisits some of the Pharisaical 
Tribe. 

rip HE feast of the dedication approach- 
ing, Jesus turned his course towards 
Jerusalem, and in the evening came to the 
house of Martha and Mary, the sisters of 
Lazarus, at Bethany. Martha was desirous 
of expressing her regard for the divine 
guest, by providing for him and his dis- 
ciples the best entertainment in her power. 
But her sister, who was of a more contem- 
plative disposition, sat quietly at the feet 
of Jesus, listening with the utmost atten- 
tion to his doctrine. For the great Re- 
deemer of mankind never omitted any op- 
portunity of declaring the gracious offers 
of the Almighty, and his unspeakable love 
for the children of men. Martha, being 
greatly fatigued with the burden of the 
service, complained to Jesus of the little 
care Mary took to assist her. Lord, dost 
thou not care that my sister hath left me to 
serve alone ? Bid her therefore that she help 
me, Luke x. 40. 

But Martha's officiousness incurred our 
Lord's reproof, who commended Mary for 
her attentive application to his doctrine. 
Martha, Martha, thou art careful and trou- 
bled about many things : but one thing is 
needful. And Mary hath chosen that good 



part, which shall not be taken away from her, 
Luke x. 41, 42. 

When Jesus repaired to Jerusalem, to 
celebrate the feast of dedication, he was 
informed that the beggar he had restored 
to sight had been, by the council, cast out 
of the synagogue. This information ex- 
cited the pity of the Son of God; and he 
resolved to make him full amends for the 
injury he had suffered. It was long be- 
fore he met the suffering person, and said 
to him, Dost t/iou believe on the Son of God? 
He answered, and said, J\ ho is he, Lord, 
that I might believe on him? And Jesus 
said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it 
is he that talketh with thee. And he said, 
Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him, 
John ix. 35. 

We have hinted that the beggar was 
thoroughly convinced the person who 
opened his eyes was a messenger from 
heaven : it is, therefore, no wonder that 
as soon as he knew Jesus was the person 
who had performed so great a work, he 
readily believed him to be the Son of 
God. 

Our Saviour having thus given the poor 
man ample proof of his Messiahship, di- 
rected his discourse to the people, and said 
unto them, For judgment I am come into 
this world, that they which see not might see ; 
and that they which see might be made blind, 
John ix. 39- The meaning of our Sa- 
viour, though he alluded to the blind man, 
was spiritual. He did not intend to re- 
present the design of his coming, but the 
effect it would have on the minds of 
men : as it would demonstrate what cha- 
racter and disposition every person pos- 
sessed. The humble, the docile, and the 
honest, though they were immersed in the 
night of darkness, with regard to religion 
and the knowledge of the scriptures, should 
be enlightened by his coming, as the blind 

man 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



man had enjoyed the invaluable gift of 
sight from his hands; but those who were 
wise, learned, and enlightened, in their 
own opinion, should appear in their true 
character, absolutely ignorant, foolish, and 
blind. 

The Pharisees, who happened to be 
present when he spake these words to the 
people, imagined that he intended to 
throw a reflection on their sect, which the 
common people, from their skill in the 
law, held in great veneration. Accord- 
ingly they asked him, with disdain, Are 
we blind also ? Dost thou place us, who are 
teachers, and have taken such pains to ac- 
quire the knowledge of the Scriptures, on 
a level with the vulgar? To which Jesus 
answered, If ye were blind, ye should have 
no sin ; but now ye say, We see, therefore 
your sin remaineth. If ye had not enjoyed 
the faculties and opportunities of discern- 
ing the proofs of my mission, you might 
have been considered as blind ; but as ye 
are superior to the vulgar in point of learn- 
ing, and at the same time your hearts 
averse from acknowledging the truth, your 
enlightened understanding will only ag- 
gravate your guilt. 

Having condemned the obstinacy and 
prejudice of the sect, in rejecting the most 
evident tokens of the divinity of his mis- 
sion, he continued the reproof, by describ- 
ing the characters of a true and false 
teacher. It was our Lord's custom alwaj^s 
to allude to objects before him ; and being 
now in the outer court of the temple, near 
the sheep, which were there exposed to 
sale, for sacrifice, he compared the teach- 
ers among the Jews to shepherds, and the 
people to sheep ; a metaphor often used 
by the old prophets. He considered two 
kinds of bad shepherds, or teachers : the 
one, who, instead of entering in by the 
door to lead the flocks to the richest pas- 



tures, entered some other way, with an 
intention only to kill, to steal, and to de- 
stroy; the other, who, though they entered 
by the door to feed their flocks, with the 
dispositions of hirelings, yet when the wolf 
appeared, they deserted the sheep, having 
no love for any but themselves. By the 
former he plainly alluded to the Pharisees, 
who had cast the man born blind out of 
the synagogue, for no other reason than 
because he would not act contrary to the 
dictates of his conscience, and agree with 
them in declaring Jesus to be an impos- 
tor. But though they had cast him out 
of their church, Christ received him into 
his, which is the true church, the spiritual 
inclosure, where the sheep go in and out, 
and find pasture. 

To illustrate the allusion, it should be 
observed, that the sheep which were 
brought to be folded, were inclosed in 
little folds, within the outer court of the 
temple; so that the shepherd himself could 
not enter, till the porter had opened the 
door. And from this circumstance, the 
following parabolical discourse may be 
easily understood. Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, He that entereth not by the door 
into the sheepj'old, but climbeth up some other 
way, the same is a thief and a robber, 
John x. 1. Believe me, that whosoever, in 
any age of the church, assumed the office 
of a teacher, without a commission from 
me, was a thief and a robber: and in the 
present age, he is no better who assumes 
that office without my commission, and 
particularly without believing on me. But 
he that entereth in by the door, is the shep- 
herd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth ; 
and the sheep hear his voice : and he calleth 
his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out : 
and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he 
goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; 
for thci/ ktiow his voice, John x. 2, 3, 4. 

The 



140 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



The doctrine here inculcated is, that 
good men are obedient to the instructions 
of true and faithful teachers, who, in every 
case, shew them their duty with the great- 
est plainness, not concealing it because it 
may be disagreeable to their inclinations. 
On the contrary, A stranger will they not 
follow, but will flee from him ; for they 
know not the voice of strangeis, John x. 5. 
The people of God will not hearken to 
impostors and false teachers, who neither 
preach nor live the truth, but flee from 
them, like sheep from the voice of a stran- 
ger; for they can easily distinguish them 
from the messengers of God, by their fruits, 
their doctrines, and their lives. 

Thus did the great Redeemer of man- 
kind, by this instructive parabolical dis- 
course, explain to the Pharisees the differ- 
ence between true and false teachers ; 
but they being ignorant of his meaning, 
he added, by way of explication, Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the 
sheep: I am not only the door by which 
the shepherd must enter, but I am also the 
door of the sheep: it is by me that men en- 
ter into the spiritual inclosure of the true 
church. All that ever came before me, — 
all those who have presumed to assume the 
characters of teachers of religion, with- 
out commission from me, — are thieves and 
robbers : but the sheep did not hear them, 
John x. 8. 

/ am the door, through which alone any 
one can come acceptably unto God: By 
me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, 
and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 
If any man believeth on me, he shall be- 
come a true member of the church of God 
upon earth, and shall from time to time 
receive such instruction, as shall nourish 
his soul unto eternal life. Our blessed 
Saviour seems to change the image in 
the last particular, and instead of the 



outer court of the temple, where the sheep 
were kept, represented an inclosure, where 
cattle were fed. 

The thief cometh not but for to steal, and 
to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they 
might have life, and that they might have it 
more abundantly, John x. 10. You may 
easily know that I am neither a thief nor a 
robber, by considering that the intention 
of such is only to steal, to kill, and to de- 
stroy the flock. They assume the charac- 
ters of teachers who have received their 
commission from heaven, for no other rea- 
son than to promote their own interest, at 
the expense of the souls of men ; but I am 
come merely to give you life, and even 
much more abundantly than it was given 
under the dispensation of the law 

Nor am I an hireling shepherd, ap- 
pointed by the owner to take care of the 
flock : I am the good shepherd promised 
by the prophets ; the true proprietor of the 
sheep. This is sufficiently evident from 
my laying down my life for the safety of 
the flock: whereas an hireling, who pur- 
poses nothing but his own advantage, 
when he sees the wolf approaching, deserts 
the sheep ; his whole care is for his own 
safety, and therefore he will not expose 
himself to any danger on their account; 
so that the wolf, without resistance, tears 
some to pieces, and disperses the rest. I 
am the good shepherd : the good shepherd 
giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is 
an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own 
the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coining, and 
leaveth the sheep, and fleeth ; and the wolf 
catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The 
hireling fleeth because he is an hireling, and 
careth not for the sheep, John x. 11 — 13. 

And as I am the good shepherd, and so 
earnest in tending them, so I know every 
particular sheep, am able to claim it, in 
whose possession soever it be, and know 

every 



AND SAVIOUR, 

every thing relating to the sheep. I know) 
the circumstances wherein they are placed, < 
am well acquainted with their wants, and 
can judge what assistance they need. 
Besides, I love them all with the greatest 
sincerity, and approve of their faith in, 
and obedience to me, because it is sincere, 
and springs from a right principle. For 
they have just notions of my dignity and 
character; they know that I am their Shep- 
herd and Saviour, sent from God ; and that 
I am able to feed them with knowledge, 
deliver them from sin, and the punishment 
of it, and bestow on them eternal life, and 
procure them a place in the blissful man- 
sions of my Father's house. I am the good 
shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known 
of mine, John x. 14. 

And this mutual knowledge and love of 
each other is like that subsisting between 
me and my Father. As the Father knoweth 
me, even so knozv I the Father; and I lay 
dozen my life for the sheep, John x. 15. I 
will give a convincing proof of the love I 
bear the sheep ; I will lay down my life 
for them : an instance of regard that will 
never be given by an hireling. 

But I have other sheep, besides those 
of the seed of Abraham; numbers of my 
flock are anions; the Gentiles. These also 
1 must bring into my church, and they 
will cheerfully submit to my laws. There 
shall be then but one fold, and they shall 
know me, shall distinguish my voice from 
that of a stranger, and though consisting 
of Jews and Gentiles, yet they shall have 
but one shepherd to feed and govern 
them; for the middle wall of partition shall 
be broken down. And other sheep I have, 
which are not of this fold: them also I must 
bring, and they shall hear my voice; and 
there shall be one fold, and one shepherd, John 
x. 16. 

And because I law down my life to save 



JESUS CHRIST. ui 

i the world, therefore my heavenly Father 
loveth me. But though 1 lay down my 
life, I will take it again; for I will in due 
time rise from the dead. I do not, how- 
ever, either lay down my life, or rise from 
the dead, without the appointment of the 
Almighty. 1 act in both according to the 
divine wisdom, and agreeably to the will of 
my heavenly Father. Therefore doth my 
Father love me, because I lay down my life, 
that I might take it again. No man taketh 
it from me, but I lay it down of myself: I 
have power to lay it doivii, and I have power 
to take it again. This commandment have I 
received of my Father, John x. 17, 18. 

Various were the effects produced by 
this discourse upon the minds of the Jews. 
Some of them cried out that he was mad, 
and possessed with a devil, and that it was 
the highest folly to hear him ; while others, 
who judged more impartially of him and 
his doctrine, declared that his discourses 
were not those of a lunatic, nor his mira- 
cles the works of a devil : asking those who 
were enemies to Jesus, if they imagined 
any devil was able to confer the faculty 
of sight on one that was born blind ? 

There was a division therefore aoain 
among the Jews, for these sayings. And 
many of them said, He hath a devil, and 
is mad; why hear ye him ? Others said, 
These are not the words of him that hath a 
devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? 
John x. 19, 20, 21. 

Soon after, as Jesus was standing in 
Solomon's porch, the Jews came to him, 
desiring that he would tell them plainly 
whether he was the expected Messiah, or 
not. But Jesus, knowing that they did 
not ask this question for information, but 
to gain an opportunity of accusing him to 
the Romans, as a seditious person, who 
endeavoured to deceive the people, by 
pretending to be the great Son of David, 
N n promised 



142 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



promised by the prophets, in order to usurp 
the kingdom, told them that they must 
form a judgment of him from his actions: 
I told you, and ye believed not : the works 
that I do in my Father s name, they bear 
witness of me. But ye believe not, because 
ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you, 
John x. 25, 26". Your unbelief is the 
effect of your attachment to this world, 
beino- unwilling to receive the doctrine of 
the kingdom of heaven ; because you must 
then renounce all your fond hopes of tem- 
poral power and advantage. But, on the 
contrary, those who are of a meek and 
humble disposition, and their minds free 
from worldly passions, easily perceive the 
truth of my doctrine and miracles, and 
consequently are readily disposed to be- 
come my disciples. Nor shall such per- 
sons lose their reward ; for I will willingly 
receive them, and make them partakers of 
eternal life, in my Father's kingdom. And 
however assiduous malicious men may be 
in endeavouring to hinder men from be- 
lie vin 2 on me, thev shall never be able to 
effect their purpose, though assisted by all 
the powers of darkness. For my heavenly 
Father, who hath given them to me, is far 
greater than them all : nor is any able to 
contend with him. My sheep hear my voice, 
and I know them, and they follow me. And 
I give unto them eternal life; and they shall 
never perish, neither shall any pluck them 
out of my hand. My Father, which gave 
them me, is greater than all; and none is able 
to pluck them out of my Father s hand, John 
x. 27, &c. 

The Jews were so incensed at this de- 
claration, which they considered as blas- 
phemous, that they took up stones to cast 
at him, in conformity to the law, which 
commands all blasphemers to be stoned. 
But Jesus asked them, which of the bene- 
ficent miracles he had wrought in confirm- 



ation of his mission deserved such treat- 
ment? Many good works have I shewed 
you from my Father : for which of those 
works do ye stone me ? John x. 32. As 
if he had said, I have fed the hungry in 
the desert, I have healed the lame, 1 have 
cleansed the lepers, I have cured the sick, 
I have given sight to the blind, I have cast 
out devils, and I have raised the dead : for 
which of these works are ye going to stone 
me ? Do these miracles indicate that the 
author of them is an impostor? Or can you 
be so stupid as to think that the Almighty 
would suffer any person to perform such 
works, with no other intention than to 
deceive the human race ? The Jews an- 
swered, We are far from thinking that 
thou deservest punishment for any good 
work thou hast done in favour of the af- 
flicted and distressed : the punishment is 
intended to chastise thee for thy blasphe- 
mous speeches ; for thou, though a weak 
mortal, a being of a day like ourselves, 
arrogantly assumest the power and majesty 
of the Most High, and, by claiming the 
incommunicable attributes of the Deity, 
makest thyself God. For a good work we 
stone thee not, but for blasphemy ; and because 
that thou, being a man, makest thyself God, 
John x. 33. 

Jesus replied, have not the scriptures 
expressly called those gods, and the sons of 
God, who were commissioned to govern 
God's people, on account of their high 
office, and the inspiration of the Spirit 
which was, though sparingly, bestowed 
upon them ? Can you, therefore, impute 
to that person whom the Almighty hath 
sanctified, and sent into the world to save 
lost mankind, and pajr the price of re- 
demption for all the sons of men ; can 
you, I. say, impute blasphemy unto him, 
for taking on himself the title of the Son 
of God ? If my own assertion be not suffi- 
cient 



AND SAVIOUR, 

cient to convince you of my personal dig- 
nity, you must surely think that the many 
miracles I have wrought, abundantly prove 
that they are the works of the Most High, 
as Omnipotence alone could perform them; 
and, therefore, that the Father and I are so 
united, that whatever I say, or do, is ap- 
proved of by the Almighty. Is it not w it- 
ten in your laze, I said, Ye are gods ? If lie 
called them gods, unto whom the word of 
God came, and the scripture cannot be bro- 
ken ; say ye of him, whom the Father hath 
sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blas- 
pheme st ; because I said, I am the Son of 
God ? If I do not the works of my Father, 
believe me not. But if I do, though ye be- 
lieve not me, believe the works: that ye may 
know and believe that the Father is in me, 
and I in him, John x. 34, &c. 

But this reply, instead of satisfying the 
Jews, rather tended to enrage them the 
more : and Jesus, seeing it was of no con- 
sequence to reason with so headstrong a 
people, withdrew himself in an extraordi- 
nary manner, and so escaped from them. 
Therefore they sought again to take him; but 
he escaped out of their hand, John x. 3.9- 

What prudence, mingled with spirit and 
sweetness, runs through the answers of Christ 
to the Jews! What inestimable blessings 
does he propose, to invite them into his 
fold ! May we never forget those gracious 
words! May we ever be entitled to all the 
comfort of them ! I give unto my sheep eter- 
nal life, and they shall never perish, neither 
shall any pluck them out of my hand. Lord, 
may we be found in the number of those 
secure and happy souls, even of those who 
know thee, and who obey thy voice, and 
follow thee whithersoever thou leadest them 
by thine example, thy providence, thy word, 
and Spirit ! 

The feast of the dedication being now 
over, Jesus departed from Jerusalem, and 



JESUS CHRIST. 143 

retired into the parts of Perea, beyond 
Jordan. Here his ministry was attended 
with great success; for the inhabitants of 
the country, remembering what had been 
told them by John the Baptist, concern- 
ing Jesus, and beino- sensible that the doc- 
trine and miracles of our blessed Saviour 
were fully equal to what the Baptist had 
foretold, firmly believed him to be the 
Messiah. 

According to this supposition, which 
seems the most agreeable to reason, the 
inhabitants of these countries enjoyed the 
doctrines and miracles of the Son of God 
for a very considerable time. But however 
this be, the evangelist tells us, that while 
he was executing his ministiy beyond Jor- 
dan, he happened to pray publicly, with 
such fervency, that one of his disciples, 
who was exceedingly affected both with 
the matter and manner of his address, 
begged he would teach them to pray. 
And it came to pass, that as he was praying 
in a certain place, when he ceased, one of 
his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to 
pray, as Jolin also taught his disciples. 
And he said unto them, J I hen ye pray, say, 
Our Father wliicli art in heaven ; hallowed 
be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy 
will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give 
us day by day our daily bread. And for- 
give us our sins : for we also forgive every 
one that is indebted to us. And lead us not 
into temptation ; but deliver us from evil, 
Luke xi. 1 — 4. 

Soon after, our blessed Saviour cast out 
a devil ; when some, who were present, 
ascribed the miracle to Beelzebub. And 
he zcas casting out a devil, and it was dumb l 
and it came to pass, when the devil was 
gone out, the dumb spake ; and the peo- 
ple wondered. But some of them said, He 
casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the 
chief of the devils, Luke ix. 14, 15. How- 
ever 



144 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



ever strange this argument may seem, and 
however weak and absurd it must appear 
to impartial judges, yet it had a consider- 
able effect on illiterate persons, especially 
on those whose prejudices and interests it 
favoured. The Pharisees pretended, that 
as Jesus had all along been at great pains 
to oppose the traditions which most of the 
teachers of that age considered as the es- 
sentials of religion, and the principal 
branches of piety, they concluded that he 
must be a very wicked person. 

They also supposed that a false prophet 
had the power of working signs and wonders; 
and thence concluded, that our Saviour 
performed all his miracles by the assistance 
of evil spirits, with an intention to turn the 
people from the worship of the true God. 

Another pretended reason for ascribing 
his miracles to evil spirits, was, that the 
demons themselves, when they departed 
out of the persons possessed, honoured him 
with the title of the Messiah. Their argu- 
ments, though so evidently founded on 
falsehood, contributed largely to the infi- 
delity of the Jews: and however we may 
be surprised that such weak reasons should 
have any effect, considering what multi- 
tudes were witnesses of the many miracles 
the blessed Jesus performed on the sick of 
all sorts, on the blind, the deaf, the dumb, 
the maimed, the lame, on paralytics, luna- 
tics, demoniacs, and the other miserable ob- 
jects ; nay, on the dead, whom he raised 
again to life ; on the winds and the seas ; in 
a word, on every part of nature ; yet ex- 
perience hath abundantly convinced us, 
that, notwithstanding all these evidences, 
their own superstitious opinions fixed that 
headstrong people in their infidelity. 

Though part of the multitude were 
content with ascribing this miracle to the 
power of evil spirits, others went still far- 
ther, desiring him to prove himself the 



Messiah, by giving them a sign from hea- 
ven. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, 
refused to grant them this request ; telling 
them, that they were a wicked race of 
mortals, and discovered a very perverse 
disposition, by seeking, after so many mi- 
racles had been performed, a sign from 
heaven ; and, therefore, that no greater 
sign should be given them than the sign of 
the prophet Jonas. This is an evil genera- 
tion : they seek a sign ; and there shall no 
sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the 
prophet, Luke xi. 29- 

No man, added the Saviour of the 
world, when he hath lighted a candle, 
putteth it into a secret place, neither under 
a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they 
which come in may see the light. No man 
endued with the Spirit of God, concealeth 
the blessed gift; but holdeth forth the glo- 
rious doctrines of salvation as it were like 
a candle, that the light of the same may 
shine upon the souls of men who hear 
them. The light of the body is the eye: 
therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole 
body also is full of light : but when thine 
eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. 
Take heed therefore that the light which is 
in thee be not darkness, Luke xi. 34, &c. 
Take care, therefore, that thy soul be so 
completely enlightened by the Spirit, that 
the emanation of its light be not in the 
least interrupted by an evil passion or 
affection ; that all the faculties of the soul 
may be as much enlightened and assisted, 
as the members of the body are by the 
bright shining of a candle. If thy whole 
body, therefore, be full of light, having no 
part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as 
when the blight shining of a candle doth give 
thee light, Luke xi. 36. 

Thus did our blessed Saviour prove the 
truth of his mission, against the cavils and 
sophistical reasoning of his malicious ene- 
mies. 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



1 15 



mies. And when he had done speaking, 
one of the Pharisees present desired he 
would dine with him. The Redeemer of 
mankind accepting the invitation, though 
probably given, as some think, with an in- 
sidious design, accompanied the Pharisee 
to his house, and sat down to meat, but 
without performing the ceremony of wash- 
ing, observed by all the other guests. 

An omission of this kind could not fail of 
surprising the Pharisee, as he had thereby 
shewn an open contempt of their traditions. 
Jesus, who well knew the thoughts of this 
bigoted Pharisee, said to him, Your sect 
are remarkably careful to keep every thing- 
clean that touches your food, lest by eat- 
ing it your body should be polluted ; but 
you take no pains to cleanse your minds 
from the pollution of rapine, covetousness, 
and wickedness. You must surely be con- 
vinced, that he who created the body, 
formed also the soul ; and can you imagine, 
that the Almighty, who requires purity of 
body, because it is the work of his hands, 
will not also insist upon a greater purity of 
soul, which is undoubtedly the far nobler 
part of human nature? Instead, therefore, 
of that scrupulous solicitude of washing 
your hands, when you sit down to meat, 
ye should be careful to apply yourselves 
to the great duty of benevolence ; a duty 
that will render it impossible for any ex- 
ternal things to defile you, but will be at 
all times acceptable to your Maker. Now 
do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the 
cup and the platter ; but your inward part is 
full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, 
did not he that made that which is with- 
out, make that which is within also ? But 
rather give alms of such things as ye have; 
and, behold, all things are clean unto you, 
Luke xi. 39, &c. 

But the Pharisees, obstinate and per- 
verse, withstood every mean made use of 



by the benign Redeemer of mankind, to 
conquer their prejudices, and bring them 
to the knowledge of the truth; and there- 
fore our blessed Saviour treated them, on 
this occasion, with a kind and wholesome 
severity, denouncing against them tin- 
most dreadful woes, for regarding so zea- 
lously the ceremonial parts of religion, and 
at the same time utterly neglecting the 
very precepts of their own religion. // o 
unto you, Pharisees ! for ye tythe mint and 
rue, and all manner of herbs, and puss over 
judgment, and the love of God: these ought 
ye to have done, and not to leave the otlier un- 
done. Wo unto you, Pharisees ! for ye love 
the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and 
greetings in the markets. Wo unto you, Scribes 
and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are as 
graves which appear not, and the men that 
walk over them are not aware of them, Luke 
xi. 42—44. 

A certain lawyer, who sat at the table, 
thinking that this rebuke, though levelled 
principally against the Scribes and Phari- 
sees, affected his order also, was greatly 
displeased. But our blessed Saviour, who 
had never any regard to the persons of 
men, despised his resentment, and told 
him freely what he thought of their cha- 
racter. Wo unto you also, ye lawyers ! for 
ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, 
and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with 
one of your fingers, Luke xi. 46. Y r ou per- 
vert in a very erroneous manner the inter- 
pretation of Scripture, for no other reason 
than to favour the tradition of the elders, 
and by that means lay so heavy a burden 
on the shoulders of the descendants of 
Jacob, that neither you nor they will touch 
with one of their fingers. 

The blessed Jesus also condemned them 
for building the sepulchres of the prophets, 
whom their fathers had murdered ; be- 
cause they did not do it from the respect 

O o which 



146 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



which they had for the memory of these 
holy men, but from a secret approbation 
of their fathers' actions ; as too evidently 
appeared from their whole conduct. Wo 
unto you ! for ye build the sepulchres of the 
prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly 
ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your 
fathers ; for they indeed killed them, and ye 
build their sepulchres. Therefore also said 
the Wisdom of God, I will send them prophets 
and apostles, and some of them they shall slay 
and persecute : that the blood of all the pro- 
phets which was shed from the foundation of 
the world might be required of this genera- 
tion; from the blood of Abel, unto the blood 
of Zacharias, which perished between the al- 
tar and the temple ; verily I say unto you, 
It shall be required of this generation, Luke 
xi. 47, &c. 

Our Lord also reproved the lawyers for 
filling the minds of the people with notions 
founded on wrong interpretations of scrip- 
ture, whereby they were prejudiced against 
the gospel ; not being contented with re- 
jecting it themselves, but took care to 
hinder others from receiving it. Wo unto 
you, lawyers ! for ye have taken away the key 
of knowledge : ye entered not in yourselves, 
and them that were entering in, ye hindered, 
Luke xi. 52. 

Such honest reprimands highly provoked 
the Pharisee and his guests. They were 
conscious of being guilty of the crimes laid 
to their charge, but unwilling the people 
should think them guilty; and, therefore, 
out of revenge, urged him to speak on a 
variety of topics, hoping they should be 
able by these means to find occasion of 
rendering him obnoxious either to the go- 
vernment or the multitude. And as he 
said these things unto them, the Scribes and 
the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, 
and to provoke him to speak of many things ; 
laying wait for him, and seeking to catch 



something out of his mouth, that they might 
accuse him, Luke xi. 53. 54. 

CHAP. XXI. 

Explanation of the Origin and Opinions of 
the different Sects among the Jews. — Our 
hard teaches the Multitude by plain Dis- 
course, and also by Parables. 

AVING undertaken to write the 
history of the life of our blessed Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ, we cannot omit 
a distinct account of the different sects of 
the Jews, a people with whom he was most 
intimately concerned ; both as an elucida- 
tion of many circumstances, as well as a 
verification of many things foretold con- 
cerning; the Messiah. 

CD 

Josephus reckons four principal sects 
among the Jews ; namely, the Pharisees, 
the Sadducees, (called also Herodians,) the 
Essenes, and the Galileans. The evange- 
lists mention only two, the Pharisees and 
Sadducees. 

The rise of the Pharisees is unknown. 
They claim, indeed, the celebrated Mil lei 
for their founder, as he is by some sup- 
posed to have lived during the pontificate 
of Jonathan, about a hundred and fifty 
years before the birth of Christ ; but others, 
with more reason, suppose that he was con- 
temporary with the famous Someas, who 
lived about the time of Herod, long before 
whom the sect of the Pharisees was in 
high repute. It is therefore probable that 
they claim Hillel rather as an ornament 
than as the author of the sect. 

One of the most famous tenets of the 
Pharisees, was that of an oral tradition 
handed down from Moses, and to which 
they attributed the same divine authority 
as to the sacred books. This being stre- 
nuously opposed by the Sadducees and 

Sama- 



AND SAVIOUR, 

Samaritans, rendered these equally detested 
by them. But none more incurred their 
hatred than the blessed Jesus, who embraced 
every occasion of reproving them for the 
unjustifiable preference they gave this pre- 
tended tradition to the written word of God, 
and for condemning those as apostates, 
worthy of death, who did not pay the same, 
or even a greater regard, to the former than 
to the latter. 

Another tenet they embraced, in oppo- 
sition to the Sadducees, was that of the 
existence of angels, the immortality of the 
soul, and the resurrection of the dead, and 
future rewards. But with regard to the 
last, they excluded all who were notoriously 
wicked from having any share in the happi- 
ness of eternity ; supposing, that as soon 
as death had put a period to their lives, 
their souls were conveyed into everlasting- 
punishment. 

A third tenet was, that all things were 
subject to fate ; or, as some expressed 
it, to the heavens. It is not easy to con- 
ceive what they meant by this ; Josephus, 
indeed, will have it, that they designed to 
reconcile the fatality or predestination of 
the Essenes, with the free-will of the Sad- 
ducees. 

If so, this is not the only absurdity, or 
even contradiction, which they held : but 
a certain learned prelate seems to have 
proved that they attributed all to fate, or 
to that chain of causes to which the Cre- 
ator had subjected all things from the be- 
ginning ; among which the influence of 
the heavenly bodies was considered the 
principal. This seems to be hinted at by 
St. James, in the beginning of his epistle 
to the new converts, where he explodes 
that Pharisaical leaven, by the most beau- 
tiful opposition of the immutability of 
God, the giver of all good, to the muta- 
bility of the planets, which, according to 



JESUS CHRIST. 147 

that notion, must necessarily vary their 
aspects from a malign to a benevolent one, 
and the contrary, even by their natural 
motions and change of position. This 
tenet of the Pharisees was, therefore, a 
source of dislike to the doctrines de- 
livered by the blessed Jesus ; as these affirm 
that men are the authors of their own un- 
belief, disobedience, and obstinacy ; and, 
consequently, answerable for that, and 
all the train of evils these vices draw after 
them. 

But the most distinguishing character of 
the Pharisees, and that which rendered 
them more obnoxious to the just censures 
of our blessed Saviour, was their superero- 
gatory attachment to the ceremonial law, 
their frequent washings, fastings, and pray- 
ings, their giving alms publicly, seeking 
for proselytes, scrupulous tithings, affected 
gravity of dress, gesture, and mortified 
looks; their building the tombs of the pro- 
phets, to tell the world that they were 
more righteous than their ancestors who 
murdered them, though they were them- 
selves plotting the death of one greater 
than all the prophets ; their over scrupu- 
lous observance of the sabbath, to the ex- 
clusion of the works of the greatest cha- 
rity ; and many others of the like nature ; 
while they were wholly negligent of the 
moral and eternal law of mercy and jus- 
tice, of charity and humility, and the like 
indispensable virtues. The very best of 
them contented themselves with abstain- 
ing from the actual committing any enor- 
mous act, while they indulged themselves 
in the most wicked thoughts and desires. 
Nay, some, more hardened in their vices, 
made no scruple, not only of coveting, 
but destroying poor widows' houses : of 
committing the vilest oppressions, injus- 
tice, and cruelties, and of encouraging 
these enormities in their followers, under 

the 



148 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



the specious cloak of religion and sanctity. 
Well, therefore, might the great Redeemer 
of mankind compare them to whited se- 
pulchres, beautiful indeed without, but 
Within full of rottenness and corruption. 

The last erroneous opinion we shall men- 
tion of the Pharisees, common, indeed, to 
all the other sects, but more exactly con- 
formable to their haughty, rapacious, and 
cruel temper, was, their expectation of a 
powerful, a conquering Messiah, who was 
to bring the whole world under the Jewish 
yoke ; so that there was scarce an inha- 
bitant of Jerusalem, however mean, that 
did not expect to be made a governor of 
some opulent province under that wonder- 
ful prince. How unlikely was it then, 
that the preaching of the meek, the hum- 
ble Jesus, whose doctrine breathed nothing 
but humility, peace, sincerity, contempt 
of the world, and universal love and bene- 
ficence, should ever be relished by that 
proud, that covetous, that hypocritical 
sect, or even by the rest of the people, 
while these, their teachers, so strenuously 
opposed it? 

The sect of the Saclducees is said to have 
been founded by one Saddoc, a disciple of 
Antigonus of Socho. Their chief tenet 
was, that our serving God ought to be free 
either from slavish fear of punishment, or 
from selfish hope of reward ; that it should 
be disinterested, and flow only from the 
pure love and fear of the Supreme Being. 
They added, that God was the only imma- 
terial being ; in consequence of which, 
they denied the existence of angels, or any 
spiritual substances, except the Almighty 
himself. It is therefore no wonder that 
the Sadducees should take every oppor- 
tunity of opposing and ridiculing the doc- 
trine of the resurrection. 

Another of their tenets, equally opposite 
to the Pharisees and to the doctrine of 



Christ, was, that man was constituted ab- 
solute master of all his actions, and stood 
in no need of any assistance to choose or 
act : for this reason, they were always very 
severe in their sentences, when they sat as 
judges. They rejected all the pretended 
oral traditions of the Pharisees, admitting 
only the texts of the sacred books, and 
preferred those of Moses to all the rest of 
the inspired writings. 

They are charged with some other erro- 
neous tenets, by Josephus and the Talniud- 
ists ; but those already mentioned are 
abundantly sufficient for the purpose. The 
notions of a future life, universal judgment, 
eternal rewards and punishments, to men 
whom a contrary doctrine had long soothed 
into luxury, and an overgrown fondness 
for temporal happiness, which they con- 
sidered as the only reward for their obe- 
dience, must of necessity appear strange 
and frightful ; and, as such, could not fail 
of meeting with the strongest opposition 
from them ; especially if we add, what 
Josephus observes, that they were in ge- 
neral men of the greatest quality and opu- 
lence, and consequently too apt to prefer 
the pleasures and grandeur of this life to 
those of another. 

The sect of Galileans, (or Gaulonites,) 
so called from Judas the Galilean or Gau- 
lonite. appeared soon after the banishment 
of Archelaus, when his territories were 
made a Roman province, and the govern- 
ment given to Coponius. For the Jews, 
considering this as an open attempt to re- 
duce them to slavery, Judas took advan- 
tage of their discontent; and, to ripen them 
for an insurrection, Augustus furnished 
them with a plausible pretence, by issuing, 
about this time, an edict for surveying the 
whole province of Syria, and laying on it 
a proportional tax. Judas, therefore, who 
was a man of uncommon ambition, took 

occasion 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



IT; 



occasion from this incident to display all 
his eloquence, in order to convince the 
Jews that such a submission was nothing 
less than base idolatry, and placing men 
on a level with the God of Jacob, who 
was the only Lord and Sovereign that 
could challenge their obedience and subjec- 
tion. The party which he drew after him 
became in a short time so considerable, 
that they threw every thing into confusion, 
laid the foundation for those frightful con- 
sequences that ensued, and which did 
not end but with the destruction of Je- 
rusalem. 

The Essenes, though not mentioned by 
the evangelists, made a very considerable 
sect among the Jews, and are highly cele- 
brated by Josephus, Philo, Pliny, and 
several Christian writers, both ancient and 
modern. It is impossible to trace their 
origin, or even the etymology of their 
name. This however is certain, that they 
were settled in Judea in the time of Jona- 
than, the brother and successor of Judas 
Maccabeus, about a hundred and fifty 
years before Christ. 

The Essenes distinguished themselves, 
by their rules and manner of life, into la- 
borious and contemplative. The former 
divided their time between prayer and la- 
bour; such as the exercise of some handi- 
craft, or the cultivation of some particular 
spot of ground, where they planted and 
sowed such roots, corn, &c. as served for 
their food ; and the latter, between prayer, 
contemplation, and study. In this last, 
they confined themselves to the sacred 
books and morality, without troubling 
themselves with any branch of philo- 
soplry. 

But the contemplative and laborious 
had their synagogues, their stated hours 
for prayer, for reading, and expounding 
the sacred books. The latter was always 



performed by the elders, who were seated 
at the upper end of the synagogue, ac- 
cording to their seniority ; while the 
younger, who were permitted to read the 
lessons, were placed at the lower. Their 
expositions were generally of the allegori- 
cal kind, in which they seemed to have 
excelled all their Jewish brethren. But 
they paid the greatest regard to the five 
books of Moses, and considered that law- 
giver as the head of all the inspired pen- 
men ; they even condemned to immediate 
death whoever spoke disrespectfully either 
of him or his writings. Upon this account 
they studied, read, and expounded him 
more than all the rest, and seem to have 
drawn all their religion chiefly from the 
Pentateuch. The doctrines and exposi- 
tions of the elders were received with im- 
plicit faith, and in their practice they con- 
formed with an entire submission to all 
their sect. 

With respect to their faith, they believed 
the existence of angels, the immortality of 
the soul, and a future state of rewards and 
punishments, like the Pharisees ; but seem 
to have had no notion of the resurrection. 
They considered the souls of men as com- 
posed of a most subtile ether, which imme- 
diately after their separation from the body, 
or from the cage or prison, as they called 
it, were adjudged to a place of endless 
happiness or misery: that the good took 
their flight over the ocean, into some warm 
and delightful regions prepared for them ; 
while the wicked were conveyed to some 
cold and intemperate climates, where they 
were left to groan under an inexpressible 
weight of miseiy. They were likewise 
entirely averse to the Sadducean doctrine 
of free-will, attributing all to an eternal 
fatality, or chain of causes. They were 
averse to all kinds of oaths; affirming, that 
a man's life ought to be such that he may 

P p be 



150 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



be credited without them. The contem- 
plative sort, placed the excellency of their 
meditative life in raising their minds above 
the earth, and placing their thoughts on 
heaven : when they had attained this de- 
gree of excellency, they acquired the cha- 
racter of prophets. 

In their practice they excelled all the 
other sects in austerity. If we may credit 
Philo, it was a fundamental maxim with 
them, upon their entrance into the con- 
templative life, to renounce the world, and 
to divide among their friends and relations 
their properties and estates. They never 
ate till after sun-set, and the best of their 
food was coarse bread, a little salt, and a 
few stomachic herbs. Their clothing; was 
made of coarse wool, plain, but white : 
they condemned all sorts of unctions and 
perfumes, as luxurious and effeminate. 
Their beds were hard, and their sleep 
short. Their heads or superiors were ge- 
nerally chosen according to seniority, un- 
less there started up among the brother- 
hood some more conspicuous for learning, 
piety, or prophetic spirit. Some of them, 
indeed, were so contemplative that they 
never stirred out of their cell, or even 
looked out of their window, during the 
whole week, spending their time in reading 
the sacred books, and writing comments 
upon them. On the Sabbath-day they re- 
paired to their synagogues early in the 
morning, and continued there the whole 
day in prayer, singing of psalms, or ex- 
pounding the sacred books. 

Having endeavoured to explain the ori- 
gin and tenets of the several sects among 
the Jews, we now return to the history of 
our blessed Saviour, whom we left preach- 
ing in the country beyond Jordan, when 
he was surrounded by an innumerable mul- 
titude of people. 

In the audience of this vast assembly he 



gave his disciples, in general, a charge to 
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, 
namely, hypocrisy; because all their ac- 
tions would be brought to light, either in 
this world, or in that which is to come ; 
and therefore exhorted them to be very 
careful never to do any thing which could 
not bear the light, but to let the whole of 
their behaviour be honest, just, and good. 
Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which 
is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, 
that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that 
shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye 
have spoken in darkness, shall be heard in the 
light ; and tJiat which ye have spoken in the 
ear in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the 
house-tops, Luke xii. 1, 2, 3. 

This argument against hypocrisy he im- 
proved as a reason for their acquiring 
another quality, which would much better 
serve all the ends they could propose ; 
namely, an undaunted resolution in the 
performance of their duty, founded on a 
firm confidence in God, who would bring 
to light the most secret word and thought, 
publicly condemn the wicked, and justify 
his faithful servants and children. 

Fear not, said he, the malice of the hu- 
man race : it can extend no farther than 
the destruction of the body ; your soul 
may bid defiance to their impotent rage. 
But dread the displeasure of that almighty 
Being, who, after he has destroyed the 
body, is able to confine the soul in eternal 
torments. Remember, all things are in his 
power, and that nothing happens without 
his permission ; he provides for the mean- 
est of his creatures: and surely you may 
think yourselves under his protection, who 
numbers the very hairs of j^our head ; nor 
can your enemies touch one of them with- 
out his permission. And I say nnto yon, 
my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the 
body, and after that have no more that they 

can 



AND SAVIOUR, 

can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye 
shall fear : Fear him, which, after he hath 
killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, 1 
say unto you, Fear him. Are not five spar- 
rows sold for two farthings, and not one of 
them is forgotten before God? but even the 
vera hairs of your head are all numbered. 
Fear not therefore : ye are of more value 
than many sparrows, Luke xii. 4. &c. 

Our Lord, to animate his followers to 
a perseverance, admonishes them to look 
forward unto the general judgment, when 
he would acknowledge them as his ser- 
vants, provided they acknowledged him in 
this world as their Master, and cheerfully 
and constantly obeyed his commands. 
But if they were ashamed of him, and 
his doctrine, before the sons of men, he 
would disown them before the celestial host. 
And that those who reviled the Spirit, 
by whom they performed their miracles, 
should be punished by the Almighty in 
proportion to the malignity of their crime, 
which is greater than that of reviling the 
Son of God himself ; because it will be 
impossible for them to repent. Also I 
say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me be- 
fore men, him shall the Son of man also con- 
fess before the angels of God. But he that 
denieth me before men, shall be denied before 
the angels of God. And, whosoever shall speak 
a word against the Son of man, it shall be for- 
given him : but unto him that blasphemeth 
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven, 
Luke xii. 8, &c. 

He also cautioned his disciples not to 
be perplexed with regard to an answer, 
when they should be brought before the 
rulers of the people, because they should 
be inspired by the Spirit of God. Andzchen 
they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto 
magistrates, and powers, take ye no thoug/it 
how or what things ye shall answer, or what 
ye shall say : For the Holy Ghost shall teach 



JESUS CHRIST. 151 

you in the same hour what ye ought to say, 
Luke xii. 11, 12. 

While our blessed Saviour was deliver- 
ing these exhortations to his disciples, a 
certain person among the multitude begged 
him that he would interpose his authority 
with his brother, in order to oblige him to 
divide their paternal inheritance between 
them : but as this decision properly be- 
longed to the magistrates, our blessed Sa- 
viour, who came into the world to redeem 
the souls of men, and to purchase for them 
an eternal, not a temporal, inheritance, de- 
clined the office. He however embraced 
the opportunity of giving his hearers the 
most solemn caution against covetousness ; 
declaring that neither the length nor happi- 
ness of human life had any dependence on 
the largeness of possessions. Take heed, 
and beware of covetousness : for a man's life 
consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
which he possesseth, Luke xii. 15. 

To excite their comparative negligence 
of the things of this life, he placed before 
them in the strongest lioht an example of 
the bewitching influence of wealth, in the 
parable of a rich man who was cut off in 
the midst of his projects, and became a re- 
markable example of the folly of amassing 
the goods of this life, without having any 
regard to the commands of the Almighty. 
This WTetched man, forgetting his own 
mortality, made preparations for a long 
and luxurious life, pleasing himself with 
the thoughts of possessing an inexhaustible 
fund of sensual enjoyments. But, alas ! 
while he was providing repositories for his 
riches, the inexorable king of terrors seized 
him, and that very night hurried him be- 
fore the awful tribunal of Omnipotence 
And he spake a parable unto them. sa\ ing, 
The ground of a certain rich man brought 
forth plentifully: and lie thought within 
himself, saying, What shall 1 do, because I 

have 



152 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



have no room where to bestow my fruits? 
And he said, This will I do : I will pull down 
my barns, and build greater; and there will 
I bestow all my f ruits and my goods. And I 
will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods 
laid up for many years ; take tJiine ease, eat, 
drink, and be merry. But God said unto 
him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be 
required of thee : then whose shall these 
things be which thou hast provided? Luke 
xii. 16, &c. 

How solemn the appeal ! While he lay 
waking on his bed, in anxious solicitude 
what he should clo with his abundance ; 
while his heart was dilated with the hopes 
of a variety of pleasures and indulgences; 
in that very moment the golden dream 
vanishes at once ; all his thoughts perish, 
and, in their stead, a horrid account stares 
him in the face; a scene of judgment pre- 
sents itself to his terrified imagination ; a 
dark night of horror, in an instant, over- 
whelms that soul to which he had promised 
so much ease, so much pleasure ; and in- 
stead of ease, instead of eating, drinking, 
and making merry, eternal tortures, un- 
speakable thirst, weeping, wailing, and 
gnashing of teeth, must be the portion of 
this miserable soul to all eternity ! 

So is he, added our blessed Saviour, that 
layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich 
towards God. Thus shall he be taken away 
from all his soul desireth; thus shall he be 
torn from all his temporal prospects and 
pleasures. None of his beloved enjoyments 
shall follow him ; naked as he came shall 
he depart out of the world, nor shall all 
his riches be able to procure him the least 
comfort or respite in these scenes of terror. 
How should this reflection awaken us to a 
due care of our immortal part! how should 
it alarm us, when planning fancied schemes 
of worldl} r pleasures, without the least re- 
gard to the great Disposer of all events! 



Without his assistance, all our promises of 
security are vain and foolish; he will surely 
render all our labours abortive; and in a 
moment, when we think ourselves secure, 
the summons shall arrive swift as the forky 
lightning's flash, convey us to the bound- 
less regions of eternity, and present us 
clothed in all our guilt, before the just, the 
mighty Author of our being ! 

This awakening parable exhibits a strik- 
ing picture of the egregious folly of those 
who live only for themselves, laying up 
treasures for sensual enjoyments, but neg- 
lect the grace of God, and the immense 
treasure of salvation laid up in Jesus 
Christ. 

And yet, alas! how many are there, 
who are now as deeply engaged in their 
worldly schemes, as this (rich fool in the 
parable, to whom God will, in a few weeks, 
or days, if not this very night, say, by the 
awful voice of his irresistible providence, 
Thy soul is required of thee! And then, 
what will all these treasures do to purchase 
life, or to allay the agonies of death ? So 
far will they be found from being capable 
of this, that they will rather serve to in- 
crease and imbitter the surprise and an- 
guish of those agonies. Let it then be 
our labour and care that we may be rich 
towards God ; rich in works of piety and 
charity. So shall we safely consign over 
our treasure to the bank of heaven, and 
shall be enriched by it, when we leave the 
world as naked as we entered into it, and 
lose all but what has been so wisely and 
happily spent. 

Having spoken this parable, our Lord 
proceeded to caution his disciples against 
anxious cares for the things of this world, 
from a consideration that the care of God's 
providence extends to every part of the 
creation. The fowls of heaven are fed by 
his bounty, and the lilies that adorn the 

valleys 



AND SAVIOUR, 

valleys are supplied with rain from the 
clouds of heaven: If, therefore, said the 
blessed Jesus, Omnipotence so carefully 
provides for the inferior parts of the cre- 
ation, the children of men have surely 
reason to rely on his bounty, and depend 
for subsistence on his merciful hand. He 
added, that as God had called them to 
everlasting happiness in a future life, he 
would surely provide for them all the ne- 
cessaries of the present. Fear not, little 
jlock ; for it is your father s good pleasure 
to give you the kingdom. At the same time 
he gave his disciples another precept, pe- 
culiarly calculated for those times, in 
which the profession of the gospel exposed 
men to the loss of their substance : Sell 
that ye have, and give alms : provide your- 
selves bags which wax not old, a treasure in 
the heavens that faileth not; where no thief 
approacheth, neither moth corrupteth : for 
where your treasure is, there will your heart 
be also, Luke xii. 33, 34. 

Having thus recommended to them the 
disengagement of their affections from the 
things of this world, he exhorted them to 
labour after improvement in grace. Let 
your loins be girded about, and your lights 
burning; and be yourselves like unto men that 
wait for their Lord, when he shall return from 
the wedding, that when he cometh and knock- 
eth, they may open unto him immediately, 
Luke xii. 35, 36. 

This was spoken in allusion to the cus- 
toms of the East, where anciently great 
entertainments were made iu the evening ; 
and on these occasions servants demon- 
strated their diligence by watching, and 
keeping their loins girded, and their lamps 
burning, that they might be ready, on the 
first knock of their master, to open the 
door. Nor was it uncommon for the mas- 
ter, in order to reward such a servant, to 
order him refreshment, and sometimes 



JESUS CHRIST. 153 

even give it him with his own hand. In 
allusion to which custom, our blessed Sa- 
viour added, Blessed are those servants, 
whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find 
watching. Verily I say unto you, That he 
shall gird himself, and make tiiem sit down to 
meat, and will come forth and serve them, 
Luke xii. 37. 

Our Saviour enforced this constant watch- 
fulness, and habitual preparation, by re- 
minding them of the uncertainty of his 
coming: telling his disciples, that as every 
master of a famil} r , if he knew the coming 
of the thief, would make some preparation 
against a surprise, so it would be highly 
requisite for them to make some prepara- 
tion for the approach of their Master, and 
be always ready to receive him, as the 
time of his coming was uncertain. 

CHAP. XXII. 

Our Lord reproves the Ignorance of the Peo- 
ple in not understanding the Signs which 
preceded his Appearance. — Pertinently im- 
plies to an ignorant Question and Inference 
concerning the Galileans. — Teaches by Pa- 
rable. — Relieves a distressed Woman. — Is 
warned to depart the Country, in order to 
escape the Resentment of Herod. 

HE great Preacher of Israel having 
delivered these salutary admonitions 
to his disciples and followers, directed his 
discourse to the unbelieving crowd. You 
can, said he, by the signs that appear in 
the sky, and on the earth, form a judgment 
of the weather; and why can ye not also 
discover the time of the Messiah's appear- 
ance, by the signs which have preceded it.' 
TJ hen ye see a cloud rise out of the west, 
straightway ye say, There cometh a shower ; 
and so it is. And when ye see the south wind 
blow, ye say, There will be heat ; and it 
Q q cometh 




154 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern 
the face of the sky, and of the earth ; but how 
is it that ye do not discern this time ? Luke 
xii. 54, &c. 

The prediction of the Son of man com- 
ing to punish the Jews for their rebellion 
and infidelit5 r , delivered under the simili- 
tude of one who cometh secretly and un- 
expectedly to plunder a house, was a loud 
call to a national repentance. In order, 
therefore, to improve that prediction, he 
exhorted them to a speedy reformation, 
tellin o- them that the least degree of retiec- 
tion would be sufficient to point out to 
them the best methods they could possibly 
make use of for averting the impending 
judgments of the Almighty ; illustrating 
what he had said by the punishments 
commonly intiicted on the man who re- 
fuses to make reparation for the injuries 
he has done his neighbour. 11 hen thou 
goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, 
as thou art in the way give diligence that thou 
mayest be delivered from him ; lest he hale 
thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee 
to the officer, and the officer cast thee into 
prison. 1 tell thee, thou shalt not depart 
thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite, 
Luke xii. 58, 59- 

Some of his hearers thought proper to 
confirm his doctrine, by giving what they 
considered as an example of it : There 
were present at that season some that told 
him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had 
mingled with their sacrifices, thinking that 
Providence, for some extraordinary crime, 
had suffered these Galileans to be mur- 
dered at the altar. 

But our Lord shewed them the error of 
their opinion and inference concerning 
this point, it being no indication that these 
Galileans were greater sinners than their 
countrymen, because they had suffered so 
severe a calamity ; and at the same time 



exhorted them to improve such instances 
of calamity, as incitements to their own 
repentance : assuring them, that if they 
neglected so salutary a work, they should 
all likewise perish. And Jesus answering, 
said unto them, Suppose ye that these Gali- 
leans were sinners above all the Galileans, be- 
cause they suffered such things ? I tell you, 
ISlay : but, except ye repent, ye shall all like- 
wise perish, Luke xiii. 2, &c. 

He illustrated this doctrine, by putting 
them in mind of the eighteen persons on 
whom the tower of Siloam fell ; shewing 
them, by this instance, the folly of inter- 
preting the dispensations of Providence in 
that manner: for though this calamity 
seemed to iiow immediately from the hand 
of God, yet, in all probability, it had in- 
volved people who were remarkable for 
their piety and goodness. Or those eighteen, 
upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew 
them, think ye that they were sinners above all 
men that dwelt at Jerusalem ? I tell you, Nay : 
but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, 
Luke xiii. 4, 5. 

To rouse them from their indolence, and 
to induce them to seek the aid of God's 
grace and Spirit, he added the parable of 
the fig-tree, which the master of the vine- 
yard, after finding it three years barren, 
ordered to be destroyed; but was spared 
one year longer, at the earnest solicitation 
of the gardener. A certain man had a jig- 
tree planted in his vineyard ; and he came and 
sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then 
said lie unto the dresser of his vineyard, Be- 
hold, these three years I come seeking fruit 
on this jig-tree, and find none : cut it down ; 
why cumbereth it the ground? And he an- 
swering, said unto him, Lord, let it alone this 
year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung 
it: and fit bear j'ruit, well; and if not, 
then after that thou shalt cut it down, Luke 
xiii. 6, &c. 

By 



AND SAVIOUR, 

By this parable our blessed Saviour re- 
presented the goodness of the Almighty 
towards the Jews, in choosing them for his 
people, giving them the outward dispen- 
sations of religion, and informing them of 
the improvements he expected they should 
make of these advantages, and the punish- 
ments he would inflict upon them, in case 
they slighted such benevolent offers. He 
also represented by it, in a very beautiful 
manner, the unbounded mercies of the 
Almighty, in sparing them at the inter- 
cession of his Son, and giving them a far- 
ther time of trial, and still greater advan- 
tages, by the preaching of the blessed 
Jesus and his apostles; concluding with 
an intimation, that if they neglected this 
last opportunity, they should perish with- 
out remed}''. 

During Jesus's abode in the country of 
Perea, he observed, while he was preach- 
ing in one of the synagogues, on the sab- 
bath-day, a woman, who, during the space 
of eighteen years, had been unable to stand 
upright. A daughter of Abraham, labour- 
ing under so terrible a disorder, could not 
fail of attracting the compassion of the 
Son of God. 

He beheld this affecting object, he pitied 
her deplorable condition, he removed her 
complaint. She who came into the syna- 
gogue bowed clown with an infirmity, 
was, by the all-powerful word of the Son 
of God, restored to her natural health, 
and returned to her house upright, and 
full of vigour. 

Such a display of divine power and 
goodness, instead of exciting the gratitude, 
so highly offended the master of the syna- 
gogue, that he openly testified his displea- 
sure, and reproved the people as sabbath- 
breakers, because they came on that day 
to be healed. There arc six clays, said this 
surly ruler to the people, in which men 



JESUS CHRIST. 155 

ought to work: in them therefore come a in I 
he healed, and not on the sabbath-day r , Luke 
xiii. 14. 

But our blessed Saviour soon silenced 
this hypocritical Pharisee, by shewing that 
he had not deviated from their own avow- 
ed practice. They made no scruple of 
loosing their cattle, and leading them to 
water on the sabbath-clay, because the 
mercy of the action sufficiently justified 
them in performing it. And surely his 
action of loosing, by a single word, a 
woman, a rational creature, a daughter of 
Abraham, that had been bound by an in- 
curable distemper during the tedious space 
of eighteen years, was abundantly justi- 
fied ; nor could this bigoted ruler have 
thought otherwise, had not his reason been 
blinded by his superstition. The Lord then 
answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth 
not each one of you, on the sabbath, loose 
his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead Mm 
away to watering? And ought not this z:o- 
man, being a daughter of Abraham, whom 
Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be 
loosed from this bond on the sabbath-day ? And 
when lie had said these things, all his adver- 
saries were ashamed : and all the people re- 
joiced for all the glorious things that were done 
by him, Luke xiii. lo, &c. 

From this instance we may form some 
idea of the pernicious effects of supersti- 
tion, which is capable of extinguishing rea- 
son, banishing compassion, and of eradi- 
cating the most essential principles and 
feelings of the human breast. 

Our Lord, having reproved the super- 
stition of the ruler of the synagogue, and 
observing the acclamations of the people, 
then proceeded to demonstrate the reason 
and truth which so effectually supported 
his kingdom. For he repeated the pa- 
rables of the grain of mustard-seed and of 
the leaven, to shew the efficacious opera- 
tions 



156 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



tions of the gospel upon the minds of the 
children of men, and its rapid progress 
through the world, notwithstanding all the 
opposition of its most inveterate enemies. 

The great Redeemer having now planted 
the seeds of the gospel in the country of 
Perea, crossed the Jordan, and travelled by 
slow journeys towards Jerusalem, preach- 
ing the gospel in every village, and declar- 
ing the glad tidings of salvation to all the 
inhabitants of those countries. 

While he was thus labouring for the sal- 
vation of mankind, one of the persons 
who accompanied him asked him, Lord, 
are there few that be saved? In all pro- 
bability, the person who proposed this 
question had heard the Son of God de- 
scribe the success of the gospel, by the 
parables of the mustard-seed and leaven ; 
and his notions of the kingdom of the 
Messiah being those that were then enter- 
tained by the Jews in general, he meant a 
temporal salvation. But Jesus, to convince 
him that he never intended to erect a se- 
cular kingdom, answered the question in a 
spiritual manner, and told him that a 
small number only of the Jews would be 
saved ; exhorting them to embrace the 
offers of mercy before it was too late, for 
that many, after the period of their trial 
was concluded, and their state finally and 
irreversibly determined, should earnestly 
desire these benevolent offers, but should 
be denied their request. Strive to enter in 
at the strait gate : for many, I say unto you, 
will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 
When once the master of the house is risen up, 
and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to 
stand without, and to knock at the door, say- 
ing, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and lie shall 
answer and say unto you, I know you not 
whence ye are, Luke xiii. 24, 25. He also 
repeated, on this occasion, what he had 
before delivered in his famous sermon on 



the mount ; and what he had observed to 
the multitude in commendation of the 
Centurion's faith. Then shall ye begin to 
say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, 
and thou hast taught in our streets. But he 
shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence 
ye are: depart from me, all ye wwkers of ini- 
quity. There shall be weeping and gnaslnng 
of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and 
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the 
kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust 
out. And they shall come from the east, and 
from the west, and from the north, and from 
the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom 
of God. And, behold, there are last which 
shall be first, and there are first which shall be 
last, Luke xiii. 26, Sec. 

Immediately after Jesus had thus preach- 
ed the kingdom of God to the multitude, 
certain of the Pharisees came to him, and 
told him, that unless he departed thence 
Herod would destroy him : but this con- 
cern for his safety was altogether feigned, 
and their real design no other than to inti- 
midate him, hoping by that means to in- 
duce him to leave the country, and retire 
into Judea, where they did not doubt but 
the chief priests would find some method 
of putting him to death. Perhaps Herod 
himself was privy to this message, and de- 
sired that Jesus should leave his territories, 
though the agonies he had suffered on ac- 
count of John the Baptist hindered him 
from making use of force. That this was 
really the case seems evident, from the 
answer our blessed Saviour made to the 
Pharisees. Go ye, said he to these hypo- 
critical Israelites, and tell that fox, Behold, 
I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and 
to-morroze, and the third day I shall be per- 
fected. Nevertheless, I must walk to-day, 
and to-morrozc, and the day following : for it 
cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jeru- 
salem, Luke xiii. 32, 33. 

Having 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



157 



Having given this answer to the Pha- 
risees, he reflected on the treatment the 
prophets had received from the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem ; pathetically lamented their 
obstinacy, and the terrible desolation that 
would in a short time overtake them. O 
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the pro- 
phets, andstonest them that are sent unto thee; 
how often would I have gathered thy children 
together, as a hen doth gather her brood 
under her wings, and ye would not ! Behold, 
your house is left unto you desolate : and 
verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, un- 
til the time come when ye shall say, Blessed 
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, 
Luke xiii. 35, 45. 

CHAP. XXIII. 

The blessed Jesus accepts the Pharisee's Invi- 
tation a third Time. — Delivers divers Pa- 
rables, representing the Requisites for Ad- 
mittance into the Kingdom of God; the 
Care of the Redeemer for every one of his 
People; the Reception of a penitent Sin- 
ner ; and the Punishment of misusing the 
Benefits of the Gospel. 

Ull Saviour having finished this awful 
exclamation and prediction, was in- 
vited by one of the Pharisees to his house. 
Though he knew that this invitation arose 
not from a generous motive, yet, as he 
never shunned any opportunity of doing- 
good, even to his most implacable ene- 
mies, he accepted it. At his entering the 
Pharisee's house, they placed before him 
a man that had a dropsy, doubtless with an 
intention to accuse him of healing on the 
sabbath-day ; being persuaded that he 
would work a miracle in favour of so me- 
lancholy an object. Jesus, who knew the 
secret thoughts of their hearts, asked the 
lawyers and Pharisees, whether it was law- 



ful to heal on the sabbath-day ? But they 
refusing to give any answer to the question, 
Jesus laid his hand on the diseased person, 
and immediately his complexion returned, 
his body was reduced to its ordinary di- 
mension, and his former health and strength 
renewed in an instant. So surprising a 
miracle might surely have convinced the 
Pharisees, that the author must have been 
endued with power from on high ; but, 
instead of being persuaded that he was a 
person sent from God, and laboured only 
for the benefit of the children of men, they 
were contriving how they might turn this 
miracle to his disadvantage. Our Lord, 
however, soon disconcerted their projects, 
by proving that, according to their own 
avowed practice, he had done nothing but 
what was truly lawful. Which of you, said 
he, shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a 
pit, and will not straightway pull him out on 
the sabbath-day? If a calamity happens 
to one of your beasts, you make no scruple 
of assisting it on the sabbath, though the 
action may be attended with considerable 
labour : and surely I may relieve a de- 
scendant of Abraham, when nothing more 
is requisite than touching him with my 
hand. This argument was conclusive, and 
so plain, that the grossest stupidity must 
feel its force, and the most virulent malice 
could not contradict it. 

As the entertainment approached, our 
blessed Saviour had an opportunity of ob- 
serving the pride of the Pharisees, and re- 
marking what an anxiety each of them 
expressed to obtain the most honourable 
place at the table. Nor did he let their 
ridiculous behaviour pass without a proper 
animadversion; in which he observed, that 
pride generally exposed a person to many 
affronts, and that humility is the surest 
method of gaining respect. When thou 
art bidden, said he, of any man to a 

R r wedding, 




158 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



wedding, sit not down in the highest room ; 
lest a more honourable man than thou be bid- 
den of him ; and he that bade thee and him 
come and say unto thee, Give this man place ; 
and thou bemn with shame to take the lowest 
room.— But when thou art bidden, go and sit 
down in the lowest room ; that when he that 
bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, 
go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in 
the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. 
Tor whosoever ea alteth himself shall be abased ; 
and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, 
Luke xiv. 8, &c. 

Having thus addressed the guests in ge- 
neral, he turned to the master of the house, 
and said unto him, When thou makest a 
dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor 
thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy 
rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, 
and a recompense be made thee. But when 
thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, 
the lame, the blind, Luke xiv r . 12, 13. Be 
very careful not to limit thy hospitality to 
the rich, but let the poor also partake of 
thy bounty. And thou shalt be blessed; for 
they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be 
recompensed at the resurrection of the just, 
Luke xiv. 14. 

One of the Pharisees, raptured with the 
delightful prospect of the happiness good 
men enjoyed in the heavenly Canaan, 
cried out, Blessed is he that shall eat bread 
in the kingdom of God! Blessed is he who, 
being admitted into the happy regions of 
Paradise, shall enjoy the conversation of 
the inhabitants of those heavenly coun- 
tries; as those spiritual repasts must regale 
and invigorate his mind beyond expression. 
In answer to which, our blessed Saviour 
delivered the parable of the marriage sup- 
per, representing, by the invitation of the 
guests, the doctrine of the gospel, and the 
success those beneficent invitations to the 
great feast of heaven should meet with 



among the Jews; foretelling, that though 
it was attended with every inviting circum- 
stance, they would disdainfully reject it, 
and prefer the pleasures of a temporal ex- 
istence to those of an eternal state ; while 
the Gentiles, with the greatest cheerful- 
ness, would embrace the beneficent offer, 
and thereby be prepared to sit down with 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the happy 
mansions of the kingdom of heaven. — 
But as this parable was afterwards spoken 
by our blessed Saviour in the temple, we 
shall defer our observations on it, till we 
come to the history where it was again 
delivered. 

When Jesus departed the Pharisee's 
house, great multitudes of people thronged 
him, to hear his doctrine ; but mistook the 
true intention of it, expecting he was going 
to establish the Messiah's throne in Jeru- 
salem, and render all the nations of the 
world tributary to his power. The bene- 
volent Jesus therefore took this opportu- 
nity to undeceive them ; and to declare, 
in the plainest terms, that his kingdom was 
not of this world ; and, consequent^, that 
those who expected, by following him, to 
obtain temporal advantages, would find 
themselves wretchedly mistaken ; as, on 
the contrary, his disciples must expect to 
be persecuted from city to city, and hated 
of all men, for his name's sake: though it 
was requisite for those who would be his 
true followers to prefer his service to the 
richest grandeur and pleasure of the world ; 
and to shew, by their conduct, that they had 
much less respect and value for the clearest 
objects of their affections than for him. //' 
any man come to me, and hate not his father, 
and mother, end his wife, and children, and 
brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, 
he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever 
docs not bear his cross, and come after me, 
cannot be my disciple, Luke xiv. 26", 27- 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



And in order to induce them to weigh 
this doctrine attentively in their minds, 
he elucidated it with two apposite cases, 
that of an unthinking builder, and that of 
a rash warrior. The former was obliged 
to leave the structure unfinished, because 
he had foolishly begun the building before 
he had computed the cost ; and the latter 
reduced to the dilemma of being inglori- 
ous^ defeated, or meanly suing for peace 
previous to the battle, having rashly de- 
clared war before he had considered the 
strength of his own and his enem} r 's army. 
So likewise, whosoever he be of you, added 
the blessed Jesus, that forsaketh not all 
that he hath, lie cannot be my disciple, Luke 
xiv. 33. 

The publicans and sinners, roused by 
the alarming doctrine of our Lord, listened 
to it attentivel} r . This opportunity was 
readily embraced by the great Redeemer 
of mankind, who not only condescended 
to preach to them the happy tidings of 
eternal life, but even accompanied them 
to their own houses ; that, if possible, the 
seeds of the gospel might take root in their 
hearts. But this condescension of the 
meek and humble Jesus was considered, 
by the haughty Pharisees, as an action too 
mean for the character of a prophet. They 
murmured, and were highly displeased at 
a condescension, which ought to have 
given them the greatest joy. But Jesus 
soon shewed them their mistake, by re- 
peating to them the parables of the lost 
sheep and piece of mone} r . Intimating 
thereby, the great care all prophets and 
pastors ought to take of those committed 
to their care, and the obligation they lay 
under of searching diligently for every wan- 
dering sinner, whose conversion is a grate- 
ful offering to the Almighty. There is joy 
in the presence of the angels of God over one 
sinner that repenteth, Luke xv. 10. 



To illustrate this doctrine still farther, 
and shew to the grento't sinner the wil- 
lingness of God to receive him into his 
grace and favour, if convinced of his un- 
worthy and lost condition in himself, and 
imploring forgiveness through the merits 
of Jesus Christ, and the renewal of bis 
heart by the efficacious influences of his 
Spirit, he delivered the expressive parable 
of the prodigal son. 

A certain man had two sons, the younger 
of whom, not content to live in his father's 
house, safe under his protection, and happy 
under his eye, desired his father to give 
him the portion of goods which fell to 
his share. The indulgent father did not 
hesitate to grant his request ; but the un- 
grateful son had no sooner obtained what 
he asked of his parent, than he left the pre- 
sence and neighbourhoood of so kind a 
father, and retired into a far country, 
where he had an opportunity of indulg- 
ing, without restraint, his wicked inclina- 
tions ; and there he wasted his substance 
in riotous livino-. Having thus consumed 
the portion given him by his indulgent 
parent, he began to feel the miseries of 
want, and, to add to his misfortunes, a 
terrible famine arose in that land; so that 
he soon became acquainted with the sharp 
stings of hunger. In this distressed con- 
dition he joined himself to a citizen of that 
country, willing to try every expedient, 
rather than return to his kind, his merci- 
ful father, and humbly confess his faults. 
His master, from a just contempt of his 
former prodigality, employed him in the 
meanest and most contemptible offices ; 
he sent him into his field, to feed swine. 
Behold here, ye sons of extravagance, a 
change indeed ! Behold this thoughtless 
prodigal, reduced at once from a lite of 
voluptuousness and gaiety, a life of plea- 
sure and excess, to a life of the most 

abject 



160 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



abject slavery, a life of penury and want! 
Na}', so great was his hunger, so prodigious 
his distress, that he would even have been 
contented, in this miserable state, to have 
satisfied the cravings of hunger with the 
husks eaten by the swine: but no man re- 
lieved him, no man shewed the least com- 
passion for him ; so that the very swine 
were in a better condition than this miser- 
able prodigal ! 

Thus miserably reduced, he was brought 
to himself : he had hitherto been in a state 
of utter foroetfulness, but now beoan to 
reflect on his happy condition while he 
continued with his father, before he had 
deviated from the paths of virtue, and to 
compare it with his present deplorable 
condition. How many hired servants of 
my father, said he to himself, have bread 
enough, and to spare, and I perish with 
hunger? I will therefore, undeserving as 
I am, have recourse to his mercy and fa- 
vour. I will arise and go to my father, for 
such he still is ; and I, though wretched 
and lost, am yet his son : I will therefore 
say unto him, Father, I have sinned against 
heaven, and before thee, and am no more 
worthy to be called thy son ; that happi- 
ness is too great for me to expect or desire. 
I have, by my behaviour, forfeited all right 
to so endearing, so valuable a title: make 
me as one of thy hired servants. I desire 
nothing more than that thou wouldest mer- 
cifully receive me as one of thy hired ser- 
vants. 

Having thus taken a firm resolution of 
throwing himself at the feet of his father, 
and imploring forgiveness for his past of- 
fences, he did not delay to put it imme- 
diately into execution; he arose, and with 
the utmost expedition came to his father. 

A scene of tenderness and affection, 
amazingly pathetic, now presents itself to 
our view. His kind, his affectionate father, 



saw him while he was yet afar off: his 
bowels yearned towards him, he had com- 
passion on his lost, his ruined child : pa- 
ternal fondness would not suffer him to 
forbear; he ran to meet him, he fell on 
his neck, he kissed him. Encouraged by 
this kind reception, the son fell down at 
his father's feet, and began to make con- 
fession of his faults, to plead his own un- 
worthiness, to request his father's pardon ; 
Father, said he, I have sinned against hea- 
ven, and in thy sight, and am no more wor- 
thy to be called thy son. He was not suf- 
fered to proceed any farther, the love of 
his parent prevented the rest ; he com- 
manded his servants to brino- the best robe, 
and put it on him; to put a ring on his 
hand, and shoes on his feet ; and to kill 
the fatted calf, that they might eat and be 
merry. For this my son, said he, was 
dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is 
found. 

During this transaction, the elder bro- 
ther was in the field, properly employed 
in his father's business; but returning from 
thence, and hearing the sound of mirth, 
music, and dancing, he called one of the ser- 
vants, and asked what these things meant? 
The servant replied, that his younger bro- 
ther was returned, and that his father had 
killed the fatted calf, because he had re- 
ceived him safe and sound. This news 
greatly displeased the elder son ; he was 
very angry, and refused to go in : upon 
which his father came out, and entreated 
him ; but he replied, Lo, these many years 
do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any 
time thy commandment ; and yet thou never 
gavest me a kid, that I might make merry 
with my friends : but as soon as this thy son 
was come, which hath devoured thy living 
with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted 
calf, Luke xv. 29? &c 

His father, with the most amiable, con- 
descending 



AND SAVIOUR, 

descending tenderness, replied, Son, thou 
art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. 
It teas meet that we should make merry and 
be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and 
is alive again ; and was lost, and is found. 
Though he hath devoured my living with 
harlots, yet he is both thy brother and my 
son; thou shouldest not therefore be angry, 
because he has repented, and is returned, 
after we thought him irrecoverably lost. 

Thus beautifully did our Lord represent 
the work of grace on the heart of man, from 
the first conviction of sin to the absolute 
confession of it ; shewing at the same time, 
there can be no true confession without a 
thorough consciousness of guilt, a sense of 
our lost state, and an entire reliance on the 
mercy of God through Christ our Lord. 

There are three expositions given of this 
instructive representation, each of which 
seems to have some place in the original 
design ; for it should be observed, and 
carefully remembered, that the parables 
and doctrines of our Saviour are by no 
means to be confined absolutely to one 
single point of view, since they frequently 
have relation to different objects, and con- 
sequently prove the riches and depth of 
the manifold wisdom of God. 

In this parable, for instance, the great 
and principal doctrine intended to be par- 
ticularly inculcated, is, that sinners, upon 
their repentance and faith, are gladly re- 
ceived into favour; or, that there is joy in 
heaven over one sinner that repenteth. 
There are, however, two other expositions 
of this parable : the first, is that of the 
greatest part of the ancients, who expound 
it of Adam. He was made in the image of 
God, and endowed with many other ex- 
cellent gifts, which he might have used 
happily, had he been content to stay in his 
Father's house; but like this younger bro- 
ther, who foolishly desired his portion of 



JESUS CHRIST. 161 

goods to himself, that he might be his own 
master, and under no confinement or re- 
striction, he was unwilling to remain un- 
der the obedience of the divine precept; 
he was desirous of having a free use of 
things in Paradise, and by the devil's insti- 
gation effected a wretched independency, 
which caused him to break the divine 
command, and eat of the forbidden tree, 
to obtain the knowledge of good and evil. 
Thus he lost, for himself and his posterity, 
the substance put at first into his posses- 
sion; but his heavenly Father, on his and 
his posterity's return, hath provided such 
grace and compassion for them, that they 
may be reinstated in their former place and 
favour. And the same grace not being 
granted to the hioher order of intellectual 
beings, the fallen spirits, is the cause of 
their murmuring against God and men, 
represented by the answer of the elder bro- 
ther in this parable. 

Others, secondly, with a much greater 
show of probability, expound this parable 
of the two people, the Jews and Gentiles, 
who have both one Father, even God : 
and while they both continued in their 
Father's house, the true church, they 
wanted for nothing ; there was plenty of 
food for the soul, there was substance 
enough for them both. But the latter, re- 
presented by the younger brother, pos- 
sessed of his share of knowledge, went 
into a strange country, left God, and spent 
his substance, the evidence and knowledge 
of the Almighty, fell into idolatry, and 
wasted all he had in riotous living ; all his 
knowledge of God, in the loose and absurd 
ceremonies of idolatry. Then, behold, a 
mighty famine arose in that land ; the wor- 
ship of the true God was banished the 
country. In this dreadful dearth and 
hunger, he joined himself to the devil, 
and worked all uncleanness with greediness. 

Ss But 



162 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



But finding nothing to satisfy his spiritual 
hunger, this prodigal, long estranged from 
his Father, reflecting on his spiritual famine, 
and his own severe wants, humbly con- 
fessed his faults, returned to his offended 
Father, was re -admitted into favour, and 
blessed with the privileges of the gospel. 
But the elder brother, the Jewish church, 
daily employed in the field of legal cere- 
monies, and who had long groaned under 
the yoke of the law, seeing the Gentiles 
received into the covenant of the gospel, 
obtain the remission of sins, and the hopes 
of everlasting life, murmured against the 
benevolent acts of the Almighty. God, 
however, out of his great compassion, 
pleaded pathetically the cause with the 
elder brother, offered him all things, upon 
supposition of his continuing in his obe- 
dience, and declared that he had delivered 
the nation from the heavy yoke of the 
ceremonial law. 

Thus the parable has a very clear and 
elegant exposition ; the murmuring of the 
elder brother is explained to us without 
the least difficulty; and as the offence of 
receiving the Gentiles to pardon and peace 
through Jesus Christ was so great a stum- 

T . • 

bling-block to the Jews, it is natural to 
imagine that our Saviour intended to 
obviate and remove it by this excellent 
parable. 

It is however evident, both from the 
context and the occasion of delivering it, 
that the third interpretation is the first in 
design and importance. The publicans 
and sinners drew near to hear Jesus. This 
gave occasion to a murmuring among the 
Pharisees; and upon their murmuring, our 
Saviour delivered this and two other pa- 
rables, to shew, that if they would resemble 
God, and the celestial host, they should, 
instead of murmuring, rejoice at seeing 
sinners willing to embrace the doctrines 



of the gospel, because there is joy, in 
the presence of God and his angels, over 
one sinner that repenteth, more than over 
ninety and nine just persons that need no 
repentance. 

The obstinacy and malicious temper of 
the Pharisees, who opposed every good 
doctrine, made a deep impression on the 
spirit of the blessed Jesus ; he did not 
therefore content himself barely with jus- 
tifying his receiving sinners in order to 
their being justified and saved through 
him, but, in the presence of the Scribes 
and Pharisees, turned himself to his dis- 
ciples, and delivered the parable of the 
artful steward, as an instance of the im- 
provements made by the children of this 
world, in embracing every opportunity and 
advantage for improving their interests. 
There was, said he, a certain rich man, which 
had a steward ; and the same was accused, unto 
him, that he had awsted his goods. And he 
called him, and said unto him, How is it that 
I hear this of thee ? Give an account of thy 
stewardship ; for thou mayest be no longer 
steward, Luke xvi. 1, 2. 

This reprimand of his lord, and the 
inward conviction of his own conscience 
that the accusation was just, induced him 
to reflect on his own ill-management of his 
lord's affairs, and in what manner he should 
support himself when he should be dis- 
charged from his service : What shall I do ? 
said he, for my lord taketh away from me 
the stewardship: I cannot dig, to beg I am 
ashamed, Luke xvi. 3. 

In this manner he deliberated with him- 
self, and at last resolved on the following 
expedient, in order to make himself friends, 
who would succour him in his distress; 
I am resolved what to do, that when I am put 
out of the stewardship, they may receive me 
into their houses. So he called every one of 
his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the 

first, 



AND SAVIOUR, 

first, How much owest thou unto my lord? 
And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And 
he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down 
quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to 
another, And how much owest thou? And 
he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And 
he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write 
fourscore, Luke xvi. 4, &c. 

To illustrate this parable, we beg leave 
to observe, that the riches and trade of the 
Jews originally consisted principally in 
the products of the earth : they were, if 
we may be allowed the expression, a na- 
tion of farmers and shepherds ; so that 
their wealth chiefly arose from the pro- 
duce of their flocks and herds, and the 
fruits of the earth; their corn, their wine, 
and their oil. 

Thus the steward, to secure the friend- 
ship of his lord's tenants, bound them to 
him under a lasting obligation ; and his 
master, when he heard of the proceeding 
of the steward, commended him, not be- 
cause he acted honestly, but because he 
had acted wisely: he commended the art 
and address he had shewn, in procuring a 
future subsistence ; he commended the 
prudence and ingenuity he had used with 
regard to his own private interest, and to 
deliver him from future poverty and distress. 
For the children of this world, added the 
blessed Jesus, are in their generation wiser 
than the children of light. They are more 
prudent and careful, more anxious and 
circumspect, to secure their possessions in 
this world, than the children of light are to 
secure in the next an eternal inheritance. 
And I say unto you, Make to yourselves 
friends of the mammon of unrighteousness ; 
that, when ye fail, they may receive you into 
everlasting habitations, Luke xvi. 9- 

This advice of our Saviour is worthy our 
most serious attention : the best use we can 
make of our riches being to employ them 



JESUS CHRIST. \G3 

in promoting the salvation of others. For 
if we use our abilities and interests in turn- 
ing sinners from the evil of their ways ; if 
we spend our wealth in this excellent ser- 
vice from pure motives, and to the glory of 
God; we shall have the good-will of all 
the heavenly beings, who will greatly re- 
joice at the conversion of sinners, and with 
open arms receive us into the mansions of 
felicity. 

But this is not the whole application our 
Saviour made of this parable. He added, 
that if we made use of our riches in the 
manner he recommended, from a princi- 
ple of love to God and men, we should 
be received into those everlasting habita- 
tions, where all the friends of virtue and 
religion reside ; because, by our fidelity in 
managing the small trust of temporal ad- 
vantages committed to our care, we shew 
ourselves capable of a much greater trust 
in heavenly employments. But if, on the 
contrary, we do not apply our riches to 
the glory of God, and the good of mankind, 
we shall be for ever banished from the 
abode of the blessed ; because, in behaving 
unfaithfully in the small trust committed 
to us here, we render ourselves both un- 
worthy and incapable of a share in this 
everlasting inheritance. He that is faith- 
ful in that which is least, is faithful also in 
much : and he that is unjust in the least, is 
unjust also in much. If, therefore, ye have 
not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, 
who will commit to you?- trust the true riches. 
And if ye have not been faithful in that which 
is another man's, who shall give you that which 
is your own ? Luke xvi. 10, &c. 

And if, while you are God's stewards and 
servants, ye desert your trust, and become 
slaves to the desire of riches, you can ex- 
pect no other than to be called to a strict 
account of your stewardship; covetousness 
being as absolutely inconsistent with a true 

concern 



164 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



concern for the cause of Christ, as it is for 
a man to undertake at one and the same 
time to serve two masters of contrary dis- 
positions, and opposite interests. — No ser- 
vant can serve two masters: for either lie will 
hate the one, and love the other; or else he will 
hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye can- 
not serve God and Mammon, Luke xvi. 13. 

The hypocritical Pharisees treated this 
observation with derision: to which our 
Lord replied, Ye are they which justify 
yourselves before men ; but God knoweth 
your hearts : for that which is highly esteemed 
among men is abomination in the sight of God, 
Luke xvi. 15. 

Such is the parable, and such is our 
Lord's application of it; from whence the 
main intention and design of it is very 
evident. It was intended to incite us to a 
zealous concern for our future and eternal 
state, by making a due use of the means of 
grace, and working out our own salvation 
with fear and trembling ; yet remember- 
ing, that it is God who worketh in us both 
to will and to do of his own good pleasure. 
And if we thus employ our spiritual talents, 
we shall, through the merits of Jesus Christ, 
joyfully stand at the right hand of the great 
Judge of all the earth, and receive from him 
a public testimony of our faith and love. — 
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from the beginning 
of the world : For I was an hungered, and ye 
gave me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave 
me drink: 1 was a stranger, and ye took me 
in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, 
and ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye 
came unto me. Matt. xxv. 34, &c. 

CHAP. XXIV. 

Jesus rebukes the insolent Derision of the 
Pharisees. — Describes, by a Parable, the 
Nature of future Rewards and Punish- 



ments, and enforces the Doctrine of mutual 
Forbearance. 

rip HE doctrines lately delivered by our 
Lord, being so repugnant to the avari- 
cious principles of the Pharisees, they 
attended to the doctrine of our Saviour, 
with regard to the true use of riches, and 
the impossibility of men serving God and 
mammon; but at the same time they de- 
rided him as a visionary speculatist, who 
despised the pleasures of this world, for no 
other reason than because he was not able 
to procure them. It is, therefore, no won- 
der that men, who had shewn such a 
complication of the very worst dispositions, 
should receive a sharp rebuke from the 
meek and humble Jesus : accordingly he 
told them, that they made, indeed, specious 
pretences to extraordinary sanctity, by out- 
wardly shunning the company of sinners; 
while in private they made no scruple of 
having society with them, or even of join- 
ing with them in their wickedness. Ye 
are they which justify yourselves before 
men : but God knoweth your hearts. Ye 
may, indeed, cover the foulness of your 
crimes with the painted cloak of hypocrisy, 
and in this disguise deceive those who look 
no further than the outside : but ye cannot 
screen your wickedness from the penetrat- 
ing eye of Omnipotence, to whom all things 
are naked and exposed, and who judges 
of things, not by their appearances, but 
according to truth; it is, therefore, no won- 
der that he often abhors both persons and 
things that are held by men in the highest 
estimation : for that which is highly esteemed 
among men, is abomination in the sight of 
God. 

This affected sanctity, while the mind 
is unrenewed, is an abomination to the 
God of purity and truth. Jesus Christ de- 
tested hypocrisy, and frequented the com- 
pany 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



165 



panv of publicans and sinners, to bring 
about their conversion ; the Mosaic dispen- 
sation, which made a difference between 
men, ceasing when John the Baptist first 
preached the doctrine of repentance ; and 
the gospel dispensation, which admits all 
repenting sinners, without distinction, then 
commenced. The lazo and the prophets 
neve until John; since that time the kingdom 
of God is preached, and every man presseth 
into it, Luke xvi. 16. 

Think not that 1 mean to destroy, but 
to fulfil, the law, which is of essential ob- 
ligation; for till the law is abrogated, the 
least of its precepts ought not to be neg- 
lected. It is easier for heaven and earth to 
pass, than one tittle of the law to jail, Luke 
xvi. 17. 

After treating of these particulars, he 
proceeded to consider the love of pleasure, 
so highly valued by the Pharisees, whose 
lust discovered itself by their frequent di- 
vorces, a practice which our blessed Sa- 
viour justly condemned : Jf hosoevcr put- 
teth away his wife, and marrieth another, com- 
mittcth adultery : and whosoever marrieth her 
that is put away from her husband, committeth 
adultery, Luke xvi. 18. 

These reasons were clear and unanswer- 
able; but the Pharisees, stupified and in- 
toxicated with sensual pleasures, were deaf 
to every argument, how powerful soever, 
provided it was levelled against their lusts. 
In order to illustrate this truth, confirm 
his assertion, and rouse these hypocritical 
rulers from their lethargy, he delivered the 
awakening history of the rich man and the 
beggar. 

There was a certain rich man, which was 
clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared 
sumptuously every day. And there was a cer- 
tain beggar, named Lazarus, which was laid 
at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be 
fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich 



man's table: moreover, so great was his 
affliction, so exquisite his distress, that the 
dogs came and licked his sores. Thus afflict- 
ed in life, the Almighty, at last, released 
him : the beggar died, and was carried by 
the angels into Abraham's bosom. Nor could 
the rich man's wealth exempt him from 
the stroke of death : the rich man also died, 
and was buried. But behold now the great, 
the awful change ! In hell he lifted up his 
eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham 
afar off, and the late despised and afflicted 
Lazarus in his bosom. In this agony of 
pain and distress, he cried to Abraham, his 
earthly father, begging that he would take 
pity on him, and send Lazarus to give him 
even the least degree of relief, that of dip- 
ping the tip of his finger in water to cool 
his tong-ue, for his torment was intolerable. 
Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and 
send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip oj his 
finger in water, and cool my tongue ; for. I 
am tormented in this fame. But Abraham 
said, Son, remember that thou in thy life-time 
receivedst thy good things, and likewise La- 
zarus evil tilings ; but now he is comforted, 
and thou art tormented. And besides all t/iis, 
between us and you there is a great gulf fixed : 
so that they which would pass from hence to 
you cannot ; neither can they pass to us that 
would come from thence, Luke xvi. 24, &c. 

The miserable wretch, finding it impos- 
sible to procure any relief for himself, was 
desirous of preserving his thoughtless rela- 
tions from the like distress. Then said he, 1 
pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest 
send him to my father s house : for I have 
five brethren ; that he may testify unto them, 
lest they also come nnto this place of torment, 
Luke xvi. 27, 28. This also was a petition 
that could not be granted. It is too late 
to hope for relief, when the soul is cast into 
the bottomless pit. They may learn, said 
Abraham, the certainty of the immortality 

Tt of 



166 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LOPxD 



of the soul, from the books of Moses, and 
the prophets, if they will give themselves 
the trouble to peruse them attentively. To 
which the miserable object replied, that 
the books of Moses and the prophets had 
been ineffectual to him, and he feared 
would be so to his brethren. But if one 
actually arose from the dead, and appeared 
to them, they would certainly repent, and 
embrace those offers of salvation they had 
before slighted. Nay, father Abraham; but 
if one went unto them from the dead, they will 
repent. But Abraham told him, that in 
this he was greatly mistaken, for that if they 
refused to believe the evidence of a future 
state, contained in the writings of Moses 
and the prophets, the testimony of a mes- 
senger from the dead would not be suffi- 
cient to convince them. If they hear not 
Closes and the prophets, neither will they be 
persuaded though one rose from the dead. 

This truth, asserted by Abraham, has 
been abundantly proved by undeniable 
facts; from whence it has appeared, that 
those who will not be convinced by a 
standing revelation, will not be convinced 
though one rose from the dead. These 
very Jews to whom our Saviour spoke, 
were remarkable instances of this truth: 
they were fully assured, that another La- 
zarus was, by the power of Christ, raised 
from the dead, after he had laid several 
days in the tomb : a fact which they were 
so far from being able to disprove, that 
they attempted to kill Lazarus, as if, by 
this wicked action, they could have de- 
stroyed his evidence. Nay, they still had 
a more lively proof in the resurrection of 
Jesus himself, which they were so far from 
being able to deny, that they bribed the 
soldiers to spread that senseless tale, that 
his disciples came by night, and stole him 
away while they slept. So true were 
Abraham's words, that they who believe 



not Moses and the prophets, which testify 
of Christ, and his eternal redemption, 
would not be persuaded though one rose 
from the dead. 

There is not a more awakening and 
alarming example than this parable, thro' 
the whole Gospel : it is drawn in such 
lively colours, that many, in all ages of 
the church, have considered it not as a pa- 
rable, but as a real history; but however 
this be, the important truths delivered in 
it are equally clear, and equally certain. 
They are designed to describe the differ- 
ence between this state and a future, be- 
tween the children of this world and the 
children of light ; the former having had 
their portion of happiness here, but that 
of the latter being reserved to a glorious 
one hereafter. 

Jesus Christ shews us the period of all 
the prosperity of the wicked, and of all the 
calamities with which good men may be 
exercised. And what availed the luxuries 
of life or the magnificence of burial, to a 
wretch tormented in flames ? Surely the 
fierceness of those flames would be pro- 
portionable to the luxury in which he had 
formerly lived, and the sense of his torment 
be heightened by the delicacy he had once 
indulged. May those unhappy persons, 
who place their happiness and glory in 
being clothed in purple and fine linen, and 
faring sumptuously every day, take warn- 
in 2; from one greater than Moses and the 
Prophets, from one that came from the dead 
to enforce it, that they pass not into that 
place of torment ! 

Having thus reprimanded the Pharisees, 
he took occasion to speak of affronts and 
offences, described their evil nature, and 
their dreadful punishment. It is impossible, 
said he, but that offences zi ill come : but woe 
unto him through whom they come! Tt were 
better for him that a mill-stone were hanged 

about 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



1G7 



about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than 
that he should offend one of these little ones, 
Luke xvii. 1, 2. That is, the children of 
God, the followers of the Lamb, must meet 
with disgrace, reviling, and persecuti m 
here: but woe unto those who revile and 
persecute them, they had better undergo 
the worst of temporal judgments than the 
awful one that shall ensue. 

lie spake also against a quarrelsome 
temper in his servants, especially in the mi- 
nisters and teachers of religion, prescribed 
a seasonable and prudent reprehension of 
the fault, accompanied with forgiveness on 
the part of the person injured, as the best 
means of disarming the temptation that 
may arise from thence. Take heed to your- 
selves : if tluj brother trespass against thee, 
rebuke him : and if he repent, forgive him. 
And if he trespass against thee seven times in 
a day, and seven times in a day turn again to 
thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him, 
Luke xvii. 3, 4. 

It should be observed, that this discourse 
on forgiveness, uttered at a time when the 
Fh arisees had just accused him falsely, by 
calling him a false teacher, sufficiently 
proves how truly he forgave them all the 
personal injuries they had committed 
against him ; and should be a powerful 
recommendation of that amiable disposi- 
tion, which leads to the forgiveness of 
injuries. 

But however beautiful these discourses 
of our Saviour appear, when examined 
with attention, they seem to have staggered 
the faith of his disciples and followers : 
perhaps they still imagined that he would 
shortly erect a temporal kingdom, and dis- 
tribute among them the rewards they ex- 
pected for their services. If so, they might 
well desire their Master to increase their 
faith ; as discourses like these had a very 
different tendency from what might na- 



turally have been expected from one who 
was going to establish the throne of David, 
and extend his sceptre over all the king- 
doms of the earth : but however this be, 
our Saviour told them, that if they had the 
smallest degree of true faith, it would be suf- 
ficient for overcoming all temptations, even 
those which seem as cliflicult to be con- 
quered as the plucking up trees, and plant- 
ing them in the ocean. If ye have faith as a 
grain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto this 
sycamore-tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, 
and be thou planted in the sea, and it should 
obey you, Luke xvii. 6. 

CHAP. XXV 

Our Lord is applied to in behalf of poor 
Lazarus. — Cures ten Persons of the Le- 
prosy in Samaria, and restores Lazarus 
to Life. 

^OON after our blessed Saviour had 
^ finished these discourses, one of his 
friends, named Lazarus, fell sick at Beth- 
any ; a village about two miles from the 
countries beyond Jordan, where Jesus was 
now preaching the gospel. The sisters of 
Lazarus, finding his sickness was of a dan- 
gerous kind, thought proper to send an 
account of it to Jesus; being firmly per- 
suaded that he who had cured so many 
strangers, would readily come and give 
health to one whom he loved in so tender 
a manner. Lord, said they, behold, lie whom 
thou lovest is sick: they did not add, Come 
down and heal him, make haste and save 
him from the grave ; it was sufficient for 
them to relate their necessities to their 
Lord, who was both able and willing to 
help them from their distress. 

J J hen Jesus heard that, lie said, 1 his sick- 
ness is not unto death. This declaration of 
the benevolent Jesus being carried to the 
sisters of Lazarus, must strangely surprise 

them, 



168 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



them, and exercise both their's and his 
disciples' faith ; since it is probable, that 
before the messenger arrived at Bethany, 
Lazarus had expired. Soon after, Jesus 
positively assured his disciples that Laza- 
rus was dead. 

The evangelist, in the beoinnino; of this 
account, tells us, that Jesus loved Martha, 
and her sister, and Lazarus ; and also, that 
after he had received the message, he 
abode two days in the same place where 
he was. His design in this might be to in- 
timate, that his lino-erino- so lono- after the 
message came, did not proceed from a 
want of concern for his friends, but hap- 
pened according to the counsels of his own 
wisdom. For the length of time which 
Lazarus lay in the grave, put his death 
beyond all possibility of doubt, removed 
every suspicion of fraud, and consequently 
afforded Jesus a fit opportunity of display- 
ing the love he bore to Lazarus, as well as 
his own divine power in his undoubted re- 
surrection from the dead. His sisters, 
indeed, were by this means kept a while 
in painful anxiety, on account of their 
brother's life, and at last pierced by the 
sorrows of seeing him die ; yet they must 
surely think themselves abundantly re- 
compensed by the evidence, according to 
the Gospel, from this astonishing miracle, 
as well as by the inexpressible surprise of 
joy they felt, when they again received 
their brother from the dead. 

Two days being thus expired, Jesus said 
to his disciples, Let as go into Judea again, 
John xi. 7- His disciples were astonished 
at this proposal, and the recollection of his 
late danger in that country alarmed them : 
Master, said they, the Jews of late sought to 
stone thee : and goest thou thitlier again ? 
Wilt thou hazard thy life among those 
who desire nothing: more than to find an 
opportunity of killing thee ? Jesus answer- 



ed, Are there not twelve hours in the day? 
If any man walk in the day he stumbleth 
not, because he seeth the light of this world; 
but if a man zvalk in the night, he stumbleth, 
because there is no light in him, John xi. 
9, 10. 

By this he intended to inform his dis- 
ciples, that those who lived by faith, and 
acted under the infallible influence of the 
divine Spirit, could not stumble ; whereas, 
those who followed the directions of un- 
enlightened reason were liable to perpetual 
error. 

Jesus, having removed their groundless 
apprehensions, and strengthened their faith, 
that he might clearly explain to them the 
cause of his going to Judea again, told 
them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I 
go that 1 may awake him out of sleep. The 
disciples, understanding his discourse in a 
literal sense, replied, Lord, if he sleep, he 
shall do well ; his distemper is abated, and 
he in all probability is recovering. It 
would be, therefore, highly unseasonable 
in us, to take two days' journey only to 
awake him out of his sleep. Thus they 
discovered their fears, and hinted to their 
Master, that it would be far safer to con- 
tinue where they were, than to take a ha- 
zardous journey into Judea. 

They were, however, mistaken ; for the 
Evangelist informs us, that he spake of his 
death ; but they thought he had spoken of 
taking of rest in sleep. Jesus, therefore, to 
remove any doubt, said plainly to them, — 
Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your 
sakes, that I was not there, ( to the intent ye 
may believe. I am glad, for your sakes, 
that I was not in Judea before he died ; for 
had I been there, and restored him to his 
health, your faith in me, as the Messiah, 
must have wanted the great confirmation 
it shall now receive, by your beholding 
me raise him again from the dead. 

Having 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



1G<J 



Having thus given his disciples a proof 
of his divine knowledge, and of the de- 
signs of Providence in the death of Laza- 
rus, our blessed Saviour added, Nevertheless 
let us go unto him. Thus Jesus, who could 
have raised Lazarus without opening his 
lips, or rising from his seat, leaves his place 
of retirement be3 7 ond Jordan, and takes 
a journey into Judea, where the Jews lately 
attempted to kill him ; because his being 
present in person, and raising Lazarus 
again to life before so many witnesses at 
Bethany, where he died, and was so well 
known, would be the means of bringing 
the men of that place, as well as others 
who should hear of it even in future ages, 
to receive the doctrine of a resurrection to 
eternal life : an admirable proof of which, 
and as an emblem of it, he gave them this 
great miracle. 

Jesus having thus declared his resolu- 
tion of returning into Judea, Thomas, con- 
ceiving nothing less than destruction from 
such a journey, yet unwilling to forsake his 
Master, said, Let us also go, that we may die 
with him. Let us not forsake our Master 
in this dangerous journey, but accompany 
him into Judea, that if the Jews, whose 
inveteracy we are well acquainted with, 
should take away his life, we may also ex- 
pire with him. 

The journey to Judea being thus resolved 
on, Jesus departed with his disciples, and 
in his way to Bethany passed through Sa- 
maria and Galilee. And as he ottered into 
a certain village, there met him ten men that 
were lepers, which stood afar off: and they 
lif ted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, 
have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he 
said unto them, Go, shew yourselves unto the 
priests. And it came to pass, that as they went 
they were cleansed, Luke xvii. 12, &c. 

Among these miserable objects, one of 
them was a native of the country; who 



perceiving that his cure was completed, 
came back, praising God for the great 
mercy he had received. He had before 
kept at a distance from our Saviour, but 
being now sensible that he w r as entirely 
clean, he approached his benefactor, that 
all might have an opportunity of behold- 
ing the miracle ; and fell on his face at his 
feet, thanking him, in the most humble 
manner, for his condescension in healing 
him of so terrible a disease. Jesus, in or- 
der to intimate that those who were en- 
lightened with the knowledge of the truth 
ought at least to have shown as great sense 
of piet} r and gratitude as this Samaritan, 
asked. If ere there not ten cleansed ? but 
where are the nine? There are not found that 
returned to give glory to God, save this stran- 
ger, Luke xvii. 17. 

Jesus and his disciples now continued 
their journey towards Bethany, where he 
w r as informed by some of the inhabitants 
of that village, that Lazarus was not only 
dead, as he had foretold, but had now 
lain in the grave four days. The afflicted 
sisters were overwhelmed with sorrow : so 
that many of the Jews from Jerusalem 
came to comfort them concerning their 
brother. 

It seems the news of our Lord's coming 
had reached Bethany before he arrived at 
the village; for Martha, the sister of La- 
zarus, being informed of his approach, 
went out and met him ; but Mary, who 
was of a more melancholy and contem- 
plative disposition, sat still in the house. 
No sooner was she come into the pre- 
sence of Jesus, than in an excess of grief 
she poured forth her complaint : Lord, 
said she, if thou hadst been here, my brother 
had not died. If thou hadst complied 
with the message we sent thee, I well 
know that thy interest with Heaven had 
prevailed: my brother had been cured of 

U u his 



170 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



his disease, and preserved from the cham- 
bers of the grave. 

Martha, doubtless, entertained a high 
opinion of our Saviour's power; she be- 
lieved that death did not dare to approach 
his presence; and consequently, if Jesus 
had arrived at Bethany before her brother's 
dissolution, he had not fallen a victim to 
the kino; of terrors. But she imagined it 
was not in his power to heal the sick at a 
distance ; though, at the same time, she 
seemed to have some dark and imperfect 
hopes that our blessed Lord would still do 
something for her. But I know, said she, 
that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of 
God, God will give it thee. She thought 
that Jesus could obtain whatsoever he de- 
sired by prayer ; and therefore did not 
found her hopes on his power, but on the 
power of God, through his intercession. 
She doubtless knew that the great Re- 
deemer of mankind had raised the daugh- 
ter of Jairus, and the widow's son at Nain, 
from the dead : but seems to have con- 
sidered her brother's resurrection as much 
more difficult ; probably because he had 
been longer dead. 

But Jesus, who was willing to encourage 
this imperfect faith of Martha, answered, 
Thy brother shall rise again. As these 
words were delivered in an indefinite sense, 
with regard to time, Martha understood 
them only as an argument of consolation, 
drawn from the general resurrection, and ac- 
cordingly answered, I know that he shall rise 
again at the resurrection at the last day. She 
was firmly persuaded of that important ar- 
ticle of the Christian faith, the resurrection 
of the dead; at which important hour she 
believed her brother would rise from the 
dust. And here she seems to have termi- 
nated all her hopes, not thinking that the 
Son of God would call her brother from 
the sleep of death. Jesus, therefore, to in- 



struct her in the great truth, replied, I am 
the resurrection and the life. I am the author 
of the resurrection, the fountain and giver 
of that life they shall then receive ; and 
therefore can, with the same ease, raise the 
dead now, as at the last day. He that be- 
lieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 
he live : and whosoever liveth, and believeth in 
me, shall never die. Believest thou this? To 
which Martha answered, Yea, Lord; I 
believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of 
Gocl, which should come into the world. 
I believe that thou art the true Messiah, so 
long promised by the prophets, and there- 
fore believe that thou art capable of per- 
forming every instance of power that thou 
art pleased to claim. 

Martha, now leaving Jesus, ran and 
called her sister, according to his order. 
Mary no sooner heard that Jesus was come, 
than she immediately left her Jewish com- 
forters, who increased the weight of her 
grief, and flew to her Saviour. The Jews, 
who suspected she was going to weep over 
the grave of her brother, followed her to 
that great Prophet who was going to re- 
move all her sorrows. Thus the Jews, 
who came from Jerusalem to comfort the 
two mournful sisters, were brought to the 
grave of Lazarus, and made witnesses of 
his resurrection. 

As soon as Mary approached the great 
Redeemer of mankind, she fell prostrate 
at his feet, and in a flood of tears poured out 
her complaint ; Lord, if thou hadst been 
here, my brother had not died. No wonder 
the compassionate Jesus was moved at so 
affecting a scene : on this side stood Mar- 
tha, pouring forth a flood of tears; at his 
feet lay the affectionate Mary, weeping 
and lamenting her dear departed brother; 
while the Jews, who came to comfort the 
afflicted sisters, unable to confine their 
grief, joined the common mourning, and 

mixed 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



171 



mixed their friendly tears, in witness of 
their love for the departed Lazarus, and in 
testimony to the justice of the sisters' grief, 
for the loss of so amiable, so deserving a 
brother. Jesus could not behold the afflic- 
tion of these two sisters, and their friends, 
without having a share in it himself ; his 
heart was melted at the mournful scene, — 
he groaned in spirit, and was troubled. 

To remove the doubts and fears of these 
pious women, he asked them, where they 
had buried Lazarus ? not that he was ig- 
norant where the body of the deceased 
was laid: he who knew that he was dead, 
when so far distant from him, and could 
raise him up by a single word, must have 
known where his remains were deposited: 
to which they answered, Lord, come and see. 
The Son of God, to prove that he was not 
only so, but a most compassionate man, 
and to shew us that the tender affections 
of the human heart, when kept in due 
bounds, and that friendly sorrow, when not 
immoderate, and directed to proper ends, 
are consistent with the highest sanctity of 
the soul, joined in the general mourning. 
He wept, even at the time that he was 
going to give the most ample proof of his 
divinity. 

By his weeping, the Jews were con- 
vinced that he loved Lazarus exceedingly ; 
but some of them interpreted this circum- 
stance to his disadvantage ; or, according 
to their mean way of judging, they fancied 
he had suffered him to fall by the stroke 
of death, for no other reason in the world, 
but for want of power and affection to rescue 
him. And thinking the miracle said to 
have been wrought on the blind man, at 
the feast of tabernacles, at least as difficult 
as the curing an acute distemper, they ra- 
ther called the former in question, because 
the latter had been neglected. Could not 
this man, said they, which opened the eyes 



of the blind, have caused that even this man 
should not have died? 

Our Lord, regardless of their question 
but grieving for the hardness of their hearts 
and blindness of their infidelity, groaned 
again within himself, as he walked towards 
the sepulchre of the dead. At his coming 
to the grave, he said, Take ye away the stone. 
To winch Martini answered, Lord, by this 
time he stinketh : for lie hath been dead four 
days; or hath lain in the grave part of 
four days. She meant to intimate, that 
her brother's resurrection was not now to 
be expected: but Jesus gave her a solemn 
reproof, to teach her that there was nothing 
impossible with God; and that the power 
of the Almighty is not to be circumscribed 
within the narrow bounds of human reason. 
Said L not unto thee, that if thou wouldest be- 
lieve, thou shouldest see the glory of God ? i. e. 
Have but faith, and I will display before 
thee the power of Omnipotence. 

The objections of Martha being thus 
obviated, she, with the rest, waited the 
great event in silence ; and, in pursuance 
of the command of the Son of God, took 
away the stone from the place where the 
dead was laid. Jesus had, on many occa- 
sions, publicly appealed to his own mi- 
racles, as the proofs of his mission, though 
he did not generally make a formal ad- 
dress to his Lather before he worked those 
miracles. But being now to raise Lazarus 
from the dead, he prayed for his resurrec- 
tion, to convince the spectators that it could 
not be effected without an immediate in- 
terposition of the Divine power. Father, 
said he, I thank thee that thou hast heard 
me, and I know that thou hearest me always; 
but because of the people which stand by I 
said it, that they may believe that thou hast 
sent me, John xi. 14, &c. I entertain no 
doubt of thy empowering me to do this 
miracle, and therefore did not pray for my 

own 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



own sake : I well know that thou nearest 
me always. I prayed for the sake of the 
people, to convince them that thou lovest 
me, hast sent me, and art continually with 
me. 

After returning; thanks to his Father for 
this opportunity of displaying his glory, 
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come 
forth ! This loud and efficacious call of 
the Son of God awakened the dead ; the 
breathless clay was instantly re-animated ; 
and he who had lain four days in the tomb 
obeyed immediately the powerful sound. — 
And lie that was dead came forth, bound 
hand and foot with grave-clothes : and his 
face was bound about with a napkin : Jesus 
saith unto them, Loose him, and let him 
go, John xi. 44. It would have been 
the least part of the miracle, had Jesus, by 
his powerful word, unloosed the napkin 
wherewith Lazarus was bound ; but he 
brought him out in the same manner as 
he was lying, and ordered the spectators 
to loose him, that they might be the better 
convinced ot the miracle; for in taking 
off the grave-clothes, they had the fullest 
evidence both of his death and resurrec- 
tion. For, on the one hand, the manner 
in which he was swathed must soon have 
killed him, if he had been alive when bu- 
ried; which consequently demonstrated, 
beyond all exception, that Lazarus had 
been dead several days before Jesus called 
him again to life; besides, in stripping 
him, the linen probably offered, both to 
their eye and smell, abundant proofs of 
his putrefaction; and by that means con- 
vinced them that he had not been in a 
delirium, but was really dead. On the 
other hand, by his lively countenance ap- 
pearing, when the napkin was removed, 
his fresh colour, and his active vigour, 
those who came near, and handled him, 
must be convinced that he was in perfect 



health, and had an opportunity of proving 
the truth of the miracle by the closest ex- 
amination. There is something exceed- 
ingly beautiful in our Lord's behaviour on 
this occasion : he did not utter one up- 
braiding word, either to the doubting sis- 
ters or the malicious Jews, nor did he let 
fall one word of triumph or exultation : 
Loose him, and let him go, w T ere the only 
words we have recorded. He was in this, 
as on all other occasions, consistent with 
himself; a pattern of perfect humility and 
modesty. 

Such was the astonishing work wrought 
by the Son of God at Bethany : and in the 
resurrection of Lazarus, thus corrupted, 
and thus raised by the powerful call of 
Jesus, w r e have a striking emblem, and a 
glorious earnest, of the resurrection of our 
bodies from the grave at the last day, when 
the same powerful mandate, which spoke 
Lazarus again into being, shall collect the 
scattered particles of our bodies, and raise 
them to immortality. 

Such an extraordinary power, displayed 
before the face of a multitude, and near to 
Jerusalem, even overcame the prejudices 
of some of the most obstinate among them. 
Many believed that Jesus could be no 
other than the great Messiah, so long pro- 
mised ; though others, who still expected a 
temporal prince, and therefore unwilling 
to acknowledge him for their Saviour, were 
filled with indignation, particularly the 
chief priests and elders. But this miracle, 
as well as all the rest he had wrought in 
confirmation of his mission, was too evi- 
dent to be denied ; and, therefore, they 
pretended that his whole intention was to 
establish a new sect in religion, which 
would both endanger their church and na- 
tion. Then gathered the chief priests and 
the Pharisees a council, and said, What do 
we? for this man doeth many miracles. If 

we 



AND SAVIOUR, 

we let him thus alone, all men will believe on 
him ; and the Romans shall come and take away 
both our place and nation, John xi. 47, &c. 

The common people, astonished at his 
miracles, will, if we do not take care to 
prevent it, certainly set him up for the 
Messiah; and the Romans, under pretence 
of a rebellion, will deprive us both of our 
liberty and religion. Accordingly, they 
came to a resolution to put him to death. 
This resolution was not, however, unani- 
mous ; for Nicodemus, Joseph of Arima- 
thea, and other disciples of our Saviour, 
then members of the council, urged the in- 
justice of what they proposed to do, from 
the consideration of his miracles and inno- 
cence. But Caiaphas the high-priest, from 
a principle of human policy, told them, 
that the nature of government often re- 
quired certain acts of injustice, in order to 
procure the safety of the state. Ye know 
nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient 
for us, that one man should die for the people, 
and that the whole nation perish not, John 
xi. 49, 50. 

The council having thus determined to 
put Jesus to death, deliberated for the fu- 
ture only upon the best methods of effect- 
ing it; and, in all probability, agreed to 
issue a proclamation, promising a reward 
to any person who would deliver him into 
their hands. For this reason, our blessed 
Saviour did not now go up to Jerusalem, 
though he was within two miles of it ; but 
went to Ephraim, a city on the borders of 
the wilderness, where he abode with his 
disciples, being unwilling to go too far into 
the county, because the passover, at which 
he was to suffer, was now at hand. 

CHAP. XXVI. 

The great Prophet of Israel foretells the 
Ruin of the Jewish State, and enforces 
many important Doctrines by Parable. — 



JESUS CHRIST. 173 

He blesseth the Children, as Emblems of 
the Heavenly and Christian Temper and 
Disposition. 

^^/lllLI'i tlx: blessed Jesus remained 
T » in retirement on the borders of the 
wilderness, he was desired by some of the 
Pharisees to inform them when the Mes- 
siah's kingdom would commence. Nor 
was their anxiety on that account a matter 
of surprise; for as they entertained very 
exalted notions of his coming in pomp and 
magnificence, it was natural for them to be 
very desirous of having his empire speedily 
erected. But our Saviour, to correct this 
mistaken notion, told them, that the Mes- 
siah's kingdom did not consist in any ex- 
ternal form of government, erected in some 
particular country by the terror of arms, 
and desolation of war; but in the subjec- 
tion of the minds of men, and in render- 
ing them conformable to the laws of the 
Almighty, which was to be effected by a 
new dispensation of religion, and this dis- 
pensation was already begun. It was, 
therefore, needless for them to seek in this 
or that place for the kingdom of God, as it 
had been already preached among them 
by Christ and his apostles, and confirmed 
by innumerable miracles. The kingdom of 
God, said he, cometh not with observation. 
Neither shall they say, Lo here ! or, lo there ! 

for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you, 
Luke xvii. 20, 21. 

Having thus addressed the Pharisees, he 
turned himself to his disciples, and, in the 
hearing of all the people, prophesied the 
destruction of the Jewish state; whose con- 
stitution, both religious and civil, was the 
chief difficulty that opposed the erection 
of his kingdom. But because love and 
compassion were eminent parts of our Sa- 
viour's temper, he mentioned that dreadful 
catastrophe in such a manner as might 

,tend to the reformation and profit of his 
X x hearers 



if 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



174 

hearers. He informed them, that the pre- 
lude to this final destruction would be an 
universal distress ; when they should pas- 
sionately wish for the personal presence of 
the Messiah to comfort them, but would be 
denied their request. The days will come, 
when ye shall desire to see one of the days 
of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it,- 
Luke xvii. 22. He next cautioned them 
against those who should recommend dif- 
ferent ways of escaping the awful catastro- 
phe, but are utterly unable : And they 
shall say to you, See here ! or, see there ! go 
not after than, nor follow them. For as the 
lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part 
under heaven, shineth unto the other part 
under heaven ; so shall also the Son of man be 
in his day. But first must he suffer many 
things, and be rejected of this generation, 
Luke xvii. 23, &c. 

The coming of the Son of man shall be 
sudden and unexpected. Fie will come 
in his own strength, and with great power ; 
he will throw down all opposition, destroy 
his enemies with swift destruction, and 
establish his religion and government upon 
the face of the earth, as suddenly as light- 
ning darts from one part of the heaven to 
the other. But before these things come to 
pass, he must suffer many things, and be 
rejected of this generation. 

Notwithstanding this sudden destruction 
and calamity that was to overwhelm the 
Jews, he told them, their stupidity would 
be equal to that of the old world at the 
time of the deluge, or that of Sodom be- 
fore the city was destroyed: And as it was 
in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the 
days of the Son of man. They did eat, they 
drank, they married wives, they were given 
in marriage, until the day that Noe entered 
into the ark; and the food came, and destroyed 
them all. Likewise also, as it was in the days 
of Lot ; they did eat, they drank, they bought, 



they sold, they planted, they builded, but the 
same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained 
fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed 
them all: even thus shall it be in the day when 
the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he 
which shall be upon the house-top, and his stuff 
in the house, let him not come down to take it 
away; and he that is in the field, let him like- 
wise not return back. ' Jxemember Lot's wife, 
Luke xvii. 26, &c. 

A more proper example than that of 
Lot's wife could not have been produced : 
for if any of his hearers, through an immo- 
derate love of the world, should be pre- 
vailed on, in order to save their goods, after 
they were admonished from heaven of 
their danger, by the signs which prognos- 
ticated the destruction of Jerusalem ; or 
if any of them, through want of faith, 
should think that the calamities predicted 
to fall on the nation would not either be 
so great or so sudden as he had declared, 
and did not use the precaution of a speedy 
flight; they might behold in Lot's wife an 
example both of their sin and of their pu- 
nishment. He added, that those who were 
anxiously desirous of preserving life, from 
an attachment to its pleasures and vanities, 
should lose it ; whereas those who were 
willing to lay down their lives in his cause, 
should preserve them eternal^. Whosoever 
shall seek to save his life, shall lose it; and 
zvhosoever shall lose his life, shall preserve it, 
Luke xvii. 33. 

Flaving foretold the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, our blessed Saviour spake the fol- 
lowing parable, in order to excite them to 
a constant perseverance in prayer, and not 
to be weary and faint in their minds. 
There was in a city, said the Saviour of 
the world, a judge, who being governed 
by atheistical principles, had no regard to 
the precepts of religion, and, being very 
powerful, did not regard what was said of 



AND SAVIOUR, 

him by any man; so that all his decisions 
were influenced merely by passion or in- 
terest. In the same city was also a widow, 
who, having no friends to assist her, was 
absolutely unable to defend herself from 
injuries, or procure redress for any she had 
received. In this deplorable situation, she 
had recourse to the unjust judge, in order 
to obtain satisfaction for some oppressive 
wrong- she had lately received : but the 
judge was so abandoned to pleasure, that 
he refused, for a time, to listen to her re- 
quest; he would not give himself the trou- 
ble to examine her case, though the crying- 
injustice pleaded so powerfully for this 
distressed widow. She was not, however, 
intimidated by his refusal ; she incessantly 
importuned him, till, by repeated represen- 
tations of her distress, she filled his mind 
with such displeasing ideas, that he was 
obliged to do her justice, merely to free 
himself from her importunity. Though, 
said he to himself, I fear not God, nor re- 
gard man, yet, because this widow troubleth 
me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual 
coming she weary me, Luke xviii. 4, 5. 

The sentiment conveyed by our blessed 
Saviour in this parable is very beautiful. 
We hence learn, that the cries of the af- 
flicted will, by being incessantly repeated, 
make an impression even on the stony 
hearts of wicked men, who glory in their 
impiety, and laugh at all the precepts of 
justice, virtue, and religion ; and, there- 
fore, cannot fail of being regarded hy the 
benevolent Father of the universe, who 
listens to the petitions of his faithful ser- 
vants, and pours on their heads the choicest 
of his blessings. 

Hear, said the blessed Jesus, zvhat the 
unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge 
his oivn elect, which en/ day and night unto 
him, though he bear long with them ? I tell 
you, that he uill avenge them speedily, Luke 



JESUS CHRIST. 175 

xviii. 6", See. As if he had said, If this 
judge, though destitute of the fear either 
of God or man, was thus prompted to 
espouse the cause of the widow, shall not 
a righteous God, the Father of his people, 
avenge on the wicked the many evils they 
have done unto them, though he bear long 
with them? Certainly he will, and tli;.t in 
a most awful manner. 

Our blessed Saviour having thus enforced 
the dut} 7 of prayer, in this expressive para- 
ble, asked the following apposite question ; 
^Nevertheless, when the Son of man com- 
eth, shall he find faith on the earth? As 
if he had said, Notwithstanding all the mi- 
racles I have wrought, and the excellent 
doctrines I have delivered, shall 1 find, at 
my comino- again, that faith among; the 
children of men there is reason to expect ? 
Will not most of them be found to have 
abandoned the faith, and wantonlv ask, 
TJ here is the promise of his coming? 

The blessed Jesus next rebuked the self- 
righteous Pharisees. But as these particu- 
lars are better illustrated by their opposites, 
he placed the characters of this species of 
men in opposition to those of the humble ; 
describing the reception each class met 
with from the Almighty, in a parable of 
the Pharisee and Publican, who went up 
together to the temple, at the time when 
the sacrifice was offered, to direct their pe- 
titions to the God of their fathers. 

The Pharisee, having an high opinion 
of his own righteousness, went far, it is 
thought, into the court of the temple, that 
he might be as near the place of the divine 
residence as possible. Here he offered his 
prayer, giving God the praise of his sup- 
posed righteousness ; and had he been 
possessed of any, he would have acted pro- 
perly. God, said he, I thank thee that I 
am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, 
adulterers, or even as this Publican. I fast 

twice 



176 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I 
possess, Luke xviii. 11, 12. 

Having thus commended himself to 
God, he wrapped himself up in his own 
righteousness : and giving the poor Pub- 
lican a scornful look, walked away, per- 
haps to transgress some of the weightier 
matters of the law, judgment, justice, and 
truth, and to devour the houses of dis- 
tressed widows and helpless orphans. But 
how different was the behaviour of the 
humble Publican! Impressed with a deep 
sense of his own guilt and unworthiness, 
he would not even enter the courts of the 
temple ; but stood afar off, and smote up- 
on his breast, and, in the bitterness of his 
soul, earnestly implored the mercy of 
Omnipotence. And the Publican, standing 
afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes 
unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, say- 
ing, God be merciful to me, a sinner, Luke 
xviii. 13. 

Specious as the Pharisee's behaviour may 
seem, his prayer was an abomination to the 
Lord ; while the poor Publican, who con- 
fessed his guilt, and implored mercy, was 
justified in the sight of God, rather than 
this arrogant boaster. 

This parable sufficiently indicates, that 
all the sons of men stand in need of mercy. 
Both the strict Pharisee, and the despised 
Publican, with the whole race of mankind, 
are sinners ; and consequently all must 
implore pardon of their gracious Creator. 
We must all ascend to the house of God, 
and there pour forth our prayers before the 
throne of grace: for there he has promised 
ever to be present, to grant the petitions of 
all who ask in sincerity and truth, through 
the Son of his love. 

These parables were spoken in the town 
of Ephraim ; and during his continuance 
in that city, the Pharisees asked him. 
Whether he thought it lawful for a man 



to put away his wife for every cause ? Our 
Saviour had twice before declared his opi- 
nion of this particular, once in Galilee, and 
once in Perea : it is therefore probable 
that the Pharisees were not ignorant of his 
sentiments, and that they asked that 
question then, to find an opportunity of 
incensing the people against him, well 
knowing that the Israelites held the liberty 
which the law gave them of divorcing 
their wives, as one of their chief privileges. 
But however that be, Jesus was far from 
fearing the popular resentment, and ac- 
cordingly declared the third time against 
arbitrary divorces. The Pharisees then 
asked him, why they were commanded 
by Moses to give a writing of divorce- 
ment, and to put her away? insinuating, 
that Moses was so tender of their happi- 
ness, that he gave them liberty of putting 
away their wives, when they saw occasion. 
To which Jesus answered, Because of the 
hardness of your hearts, Moses suffered 
you to put away your wives; but from the 
beginning it was not so. As divorce was 
not permitted in the state of innocence, so 
neither shall it be under the gospel dispen- 
sation, unless in case of adultery or forni- 
cation. And I say unto you, Whosoever 
shall put away his wife, except it be for for- 
nication, and, shall marry another, commit- 
teth adultery ; and whoso marrieth her which 
is put away, doth commit adultery, Matt, 
xix. 9- 

The disciples were greatly surprised at 
their Master's decision ; and though they 
held their peace, while the Pharisees were 
present, yet they did not fail to ask him 
the reason on which he founded his deter- 
mination, when they were returned home. 
And in the house his disciples asked him 
again of the same matter : and he saith unto 
them, Whosoever shall put azvay his wife, and 
marry another, commit teth adultery against 



AND SAVIOUR, 

her. And if a woman shall put away her hus- 
band, and be married to another, she commit- 
teth adultery, Mark x. 12. 

The practice of unlimited divorces, 
which prevailed among the Jews, gave 
great encouragement to family quarrels, 
were very destructive of happiness, and 
hindered the education of their common 
offspring. Besides, it greatly tended to 
make their children lose that reverence for 
them that is due to parents, as it was 
hardly possible for the children to avoid en- 
gaging in the quarrel. Our Lord's prohibi- 
tion, therefore, of these divorces, is founded 
on the strongest reasons, and greatly tends 
to promote the welfare of society. 

Our Saviour having, in the course of his 
ministry, performed innumerable cures, in 
different parts of the county, several per- 
sons, who earnest^ desired that his blessing- 
might rest upon their offspring, as well as 
themselves, brought their children to him, 
desiring that he would put his hands upon 
them, and bless them. The disciples, how- 
ever, mistaking the intention, were angry 
with the persons, and rebuked them for 
endeavouring to give this trouble to their 
Master. But Jesus no sooner saw it, than 
he was greatly displeased with his disciples, 
and ordered them not to hinder parents 
from bringing their children to him. Suffer 
little children to come unto me, and forbid them 
not: for of such is the kingdom of God, Luke 
xviii. 16. 

Such are those in a spiritual light, who 
are brought to a sense of their sins, are 
humbled for them in the sight of God, and 
depend on Christ alone for salvation. 

CHAP. XXVII. 

Our Lord departs from his Retirement. — De- 
clares the only Way of Salvation. — Shews 
the Duty of improving the Means of 



JESUS CHRIST. 177 

Grace, by the Parable of the Vineyard. — 
Prediction of his Sufferings, and Contention 
of the Disciples about Precedence in his 
Kingdom. 

nilHE period of our blessed Saviour's 
passion now approaching, lie departed 
from Ephraim, and repaired, by the way of 
Jericho, towards Jerusalem : but before he 
arrived at Jericho, a ruler of the synagogue 
came running to him, and kneeling down 
before him, asked him, Good Master, what 
good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal 
life? Matt. xix. 16. 

This young magistrate or ruler shewed 
an eager desire to converse with Jesus, and 
therefore asked him, with great reverence, 
what oood thino- he should do to inherit 

© o 

eternal life ? for nothing seemed to lie so 
near his heart, in his own apprehension, as 
that he might be saved for ever. After a 
proper rebuke for an improper expression, 
Christ directed him to keep the command- 
ments, especially those of the second table, 
which can only be done by keeping those 
of the first. The youth, not apprehending 
the large extent and spiritual meaning of 
these precepts, with great cheerfulness and 
confidence said to him, Master, all these 
have I observed even from my infancy, 
and have abstained from each of the vices 
condemned in them. What then do I fur- 
ther need, in order to secure the glorious 
prize after which I am seeking? Jesus 
beheld this amiable youth with emotions 
of complacency mingled with tender com- 
passion, who had maintained so honour- 
able a character in such an elevated station 
of life, and was under such concern about 
another world ; yet at the same time, amidst 
all these hopeful circumstances, was go- 
verned still by a secret fondness for the 
possessions he enjoyed in this. To con- 
vince the young ruler of his inordinate 
love of the world, Jesus called him to sell 
Y y all 



178 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



all that he had, and give the money to the 
poor, and then promised him an infinitely 
more excellent treasure in heaven. But 
this requirement filled him with sorrow, that 
he could not obtain eternal life on more easy 
terms. 

This melancholy instance of the per- 
nicious influence of riches over the minds 
of the children of men, induced our blessed 
Saviour to caution his disciples against 
fixing their minds on things of such fright- 
ful tendency, by shewing how very diffi- 
cult it was for a rich man to procure a ha- 
bitation in the regions of eternal happi- 
ness. Verily I say unto you, That a rich man 
shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
And again I say unto you, It is easier for a 
camel to go through the eye of a needle, than 
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
God. JJ hen his disciples heard it, they were 
exceedingly amazed, saying, JJho then can be 
saved ? But Jesus beheld them, and said unto 
them, JJ ith men this is impossible; but zrith 
God all things are possible, Matt. xix. 23, &c. 

If man be not assisted by the grace of 
God, it will be impossible for him to ob- 
tain the happy rewards of the kingdom of 
heaven ; but, by the assistance of grace, 
which the Almighty never refuses to those 
who seek it with their whole heart, it is very 
possible. 

This answer of the blessed Jesus was 
however far from satisfying his disciples, 
who had, doubtless, often reflected with 
pleasure on the high posts they were to 
enjoy in their Master's kingdom. Peter 
seems particularly to have been disappoint- 
ed ; and therefore addressed his M aster, in 
the name of the rest, begging him to re- 
member that his apostles had actually done 
what the young man had refused. They 
had abandoned their relations, their friends, 
their possessions, and their employments, 
on his account; and therefore desired to 



know what reward they were to expect for 
these instances of their obedience ? To 
which Jesus replied, that they should not 
fail of a reward, even in this life ; for im- 
mediately after his resurrection, when he 
ascended to his Father, and entered on his 
mediatorial office, they should be advanced 
to the honour of judging the twelve tribes 
of Israel ; that is, of ruling the church of 
Christ, which they were to plant in different 
parts of the earth; and, after this life, to a 
proportionate degree of glory in heaven. 
V erily I say unto you, That ye which have 
followed me in the regeneration, when the 
Son of man shall sit in the throne of 
his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, 
Matt. xix. 28. 

Having given this answer to Peter, he 
next mentioned the rewards his other dis- 
ciples should receive both in this world 
and that which is to come. They, said 
he, who have forsaken all for my sake, 
shall be no losers in the end: their bene- 
volent Father, who intends to give them 
possessions in the heavenly Canaan, will 
not fail to support them during their long 
and painful journey to that happy coun- 
tiy, and raise them up friends, who shall 
assist them with those necessaries they 
might have expected from their relations, 
had they not left them for my sake. Divine 
Providence will take care they have every 
thing valuable that can be given them 
by their relations, or they could desire 
from large possessions. They shall, indeed, 
be fed with the bread of sorrow, but this 
shall produce joys to which all the earthly 
pleasures bear no proportion; and, in the 
end, obtain everlasting life. They shall 
leave this vale of tears, with all its pains 
and sorrows, behind them, and fly to the bo- 
som of their almighty Father, the fountain of 
life and joy, where they shall be infinitely 

rewarded 



01 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



179 



rewarded for all the sufferings they have 
undergone for his sake in this world. 

Things shall then be reversed, and those 
who have been reviled and contemned on 
earth for the sake of the gospel, shall be 
exalted to honour, glory, and immortality; 
while the others shall be consigned to eter- 
nal infamy. But many that are first shall be 
last, and the last shall befirst, Matt. xix. 30. 

These words seem also to have been 
spoken to keep the disciples humble; for 
in all probability they at first understood 
the promise of their sitting on twelve 
thrones in a literal sense ; as they were 
ready to construe every expression to a 
temporal kingdom, which they still ex- 
pected their Master would erect upon 
earth. Our blessed Saviour, therefore, to 
remove all thoughts they might entertain 
of this kind, told them, that though he had 
described the rewards they were to expect 
for the ready obedience they had shewn 
to his commands, and the pains they were 
to take in propagating the gospel among 
the children of men ; yet those rewards 
were spiritual, and not confined to the Jews 
alone, but extended also to the Gentiles, 
who, in point of time, should excel the 
Jews, and universally embrace the gospel, 
before that nation was converted. 

To excite their ardent pressing forward 
in faith and good works, our Lord relates 
the parable of the householder, who, at 
different hours of the day, hired labourers 
to work in his vineyard : — 

The kingdom of heaven, says our blessed 
Saviour, is like unto a man that is an house- 
holder, which went early in the morning to 
hire labourers into his vineyard: And when 
he had agreed with the labourers for a penny 
a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And 
he zrent out about the third hour, and saw 
others standing idle in the market-place, and 
said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, 



and whatsoever is right I will give you. And 
they went their way. Again he wenf out 
about the sixth and ninth hour, and did like- 
wise. Arid about the eleventh hour lie went 
out, and found others standing idle, and 
saith unto them, II hy stand ye here all the 
day idle? They say unto him, Because no 
man hath hired us. lie saith unto them, 
Go ye also into the vineyard ; and cihatsotver 
is right, that shall ye receive. So, zihen 
even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith 
unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give 
them their hire, beginni))g from the last unto 
the first. And when they came that were 
hired about the eleventh hour, they received 
every man a penny. But when the first came, 
they supposed that they should have received 
more; and they likewise received every man 
a penny. And when they had received it, 
they murmured against the goodman of the 
house, saying, These last have wrought but 
one hour, and thou hast made them equal 
unto us, which have borne the burden and 
heat of the day. But he answered one of 
them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong : 
didst thou not agree with me for a penny ? 
Take that thine is, and go thy way : I will 
give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it 
not lawful for me to do what I will with mine 
own ? Is thine eye evil, because I am good ? 
So the last shall be first, and the first last : 
for many be called, but few chosen, Matt. xx. 
1, 2, 3, &c. 

Such is the parable of the householder, 
as delivered by our Saviour ; and from the 
application he has made of it, it will not 
be difficult to interpret it. The dispensa- 
tions of religion which God gave to man- 
kind, in different parts of the world, are 
represented by the vineyard. The Jews, 
who were early members of the true 
church, and obliged to obey the taw of 
Moses, are the labourers which the house- 
holder hired early in the morning. The 

Gentiles, 



180 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Gentiles, who were converted at several 
times, by the various interpositions of Pro- 
vidence, to the knowledge and worship of 
the true God, are the labourers hired at 
the third, sixth, and ninth hours. And 
the invitation given at the eleventh hour, 
implies the calling of persons in the eve 
of life to the knowledge of the gospel. 

The law of Moses was a heavy yoke; and 
therefore the obedience to its precepts was 
very elegantly represented by bearing the 
heat and burden of the whole day. But 
the proselyted Gentiles paid obedience 
only to some particular precepts of the 
law, bore but part of its weight, and were 
therefore represented by those who w r ere 
hired at the third, sixth, and ninth hours : 
while those Heathens, who regulated their 
conduct by the law of nature (so called) 
only, and esteemed the works of justice, 
piety, temperance, and charity, as their 
whole duty, are beautifully represented as 
labouring only one hour in the cool of the 
evening. 

When the evening was come, and each 
labourer was to receive his wages, they 
were all placed on an equal footing ; these 
rewards being the privileges and advan- 
tages of the gospel. The Jews, who had 
borne the grievous yoke of the Mosaic 
ceremonies, murmured when they found 
the Gentiles were admitted to its privileges, 
without being subject to the ceremonial 
worship. But we must not urge the cir- 
cumstance of the reward so far as to fancy 
that either Jews or Gentiles merited the 
blessings of the gospel, by their having 
laboured faithfully in the vineyard, or 
having behaved well under their several 
dispensations. 

The glorious gospel, with all its bless- 
ings, was bestowed entirely by the free 
grace of God, and without any thing in 
men to merit it : besides, it w r as offered 



promiscuously to all, and embraced by 
persons of all characters. The conclusion 
of the parable deserves our utmost atten- 
tion, we should meditate upon it, and 
take care to make our calling and election 
sure. 

After J esushad finished these discourses, 
he continued his journey towards Jerusa- 
lem, where, it is said, the chief priests 
and elders, soon after the resurrection of 
Lazarus, issued a proclamation, promising 
a reward to any one who should appre- 
hend him. In all probability, this was the 
reason w r hy the disciples were astonished 
at the alacrity of our Lord, during this 
journey, while they themselves followed 
him trembling. Jesus, therefore, thought 
proper to repeat the prophecies concern- 
ing his sufferings, in order to shew his dis- 
ciples that they w T ere entirely voluntary ; 
adding, that though the Jews should put 
him to death, yet, instead of weakening, 
it should increase their faith, especially as 
he would rise again on the third day from 
the dead. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, 
and all things that are written by the pro- 
phets concerning the Son of man shall be accom- 
plished: For he shall be delivered unto the 
Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spite- 
fully entreated, and spitted on : and they 
shall scourge him, and put him to death ; and 
the third day he shall rise again, Luke xviii. 
31, 32, 33. 

As this prediction manifestly tended to 
the confirmation of the ancient prophecies, 
it must have given the greatest encourage- 
ment to his disciples, had they understood 
and applied it in a proper manner : but 
they were so ignorant of the scriptures, that 
they had no idea of what he meant. And 
they understood none of these things : and this 
saying was hid from them ; neither knew they 
the things which were spoken. 

The sons of Zebedee were so blinded 

by 



AND SAVIOUR, 

by prejudice, that they thought their Mas- 
ter, by his telling them he would rise again 
from the dead, meant that he would then 
erect his empire, and accordingly begged 
that he would confer on them the chief 
posts in his kingdom ; which they expressed 
by desiring to be seated, the one on his right 
hand, and the other on his left ; in allusion 
to his placing the twelve apostles upon 
twelve thrones, judging the tribes of Israel. 
But some writers think that this ignorant 
request was made at some other time. 

This race of mortals, ever since our Sa- 
viour's transfiguration, had conceived very 
high notions of his kingdom, and possibly 
of their own merit also, because they had 
been permitted to behold that miracle. 
But Jesus told them, that they were igno- 
rant of the nature of the honour they re- 
quested ; and since they desired to share 
with him in glory, asked them, If they were 
willing to share with him also in his suffer- 
ings ? Ye know not what ye ask: are ye able 
to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and 
to be baptized with the baptism that I am bap- 
tized with? Matt. xx. 22. 

The two disciples, ravished with the 
prospect of the dignity they were aspiring 
after, replied, without hesitation, that they 
were both able and willing to share any 
hardship their Master might meet with in 
the way to the kingdom. To which he 
answered, that they should certainly share 
with him in his troubles and afflictions ; but 
that they had asked a favour which was 
not his to give, except as prepared and 
promised by the Father. Ye shall drink, 
indeed, of my cup, and be baptized with the 
baptism I am baptized with : but to sit on my 
right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give; 
but it shall be given unto them for whom it 
is prepared of my Father, Matt. xx. 23. 

This ambitious request of the two bro- 
thers raised the indignation of the rest of 



JESUS CHRIST. 181 

the disciples, who thinking themselves 
equally deserving the principal posts in tlie 
Messiah's kingdom, were highly offended 
at the arrogance of the sons of Zebedee. 
Jesus therefore, in order to restore har- 
mony among his disciples, told them, that 
his kingdom was very different from those 
of the present world ; and the greatness of 
his disciples did not, like that of secular 
princes, consist in reigning over others in 
an absolute and despotic manner. Ye know 
that the princes of the Gentiles exercise domi- 
nion over them, and they that are great exercise 
authority upon them. But it shall not be so 
among you : but whosoever will be great 
among you, let him be your minister; and who- 
soever will be chief among you, let him be your 
servant; even as the So?i of man came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister; and to give his 
life a ransom for many, Matt. xx. 25, &c. 
Ye know that rank and precedence denote 
merit of character here : but Christian 
greatness and spiritual precedence consist 
in humility, of which Christ your Saviour 
was made an eminent pattern 

CHAP. XXVIII. 

The benevolent Saviour restores Sight to the 
Blind. — Kindly regards Zaccheus the Pub- 
lican. — Delivers the Parable of the Ser- 
vants entrusted with their Lord's 3Ioney. — 
Accepts the kind Offices of Mary. — Makes 
a public Entry into Jerusalem. 

ESUS, with his disciples, and the mul- 
titude that accompanied him, were now 
arrived at Jericho, a famous city of Pales- 
tine, and the second in the kingdom. Near 
this town Jesus cured two blind men, who 
sat by the road begging, and expressed 
their belief in him as the Messiah. And as 
they departed from Jericho, a great multitude 
followed him. And, behold, two blind men, 
Z z sitting 




182 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



sitting by the zcay-sidc, when they heard that 
Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy 
on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And the 
multitude rebuked them, because they should 
hold their peace : but they cried the more, say- 
ing, Have mercu on us, 0 Lord, thou son of 
David, Matt. xx. 29, &c. 

This importunate request had its desired 
effect on the Son of God. He stood still, 
and called them to him, that by their man- 
ner of walking the spectators might be con- 
vinced they were really blind. As soon 
as they approached him, he asked them, 
What they requested with such earnest- 
ness? To which the beggars answered, 
That they might receive their sight. What 
will ye that I shall do unto you? They say, 
Lord, that our eyes may be opened. This 
request was not made in vain: their com- 
passionate Saviour touched their eyes, and 
immediately they received sight, and fol- 
lowed him, glorifying and praising God. 

After conferring; sight on these beggars, 
Zaccheus, chief of the publicans, having 
often heard the fame of our Saviour's mi- 
racles, was desirous of seeing his person ; 
but the lowness of his stature preventing him 
from satisfying his curiosity, he ran before, 
and climbed tip into a sycamore-tree, to see 
him; for he was to pass that way. As Jesus 
approached the place where he was, he 
looked, up, and saw him, and said unto him, 
Zaccheus, make haste, and come dozvn; for to- 
day I must abide at thy house, Luke xix. 5. 

The publican expressed his joy at our 
Lord's condescending to visit him, took 
him to his house, and shewed him all the 
marks of civility in his power. But the 
people, when they saw he was going to 
the house of a publican, condemned his 
conduct as not conformable to his cha- 
racter of a prophet. Zaccheus seems to 
have heard these unjust reflections ; and 
therefore was willing to justify himself 



before Jesus and his attendants. And 

Zaccheus stood, and said unto the Lord, Be- 
hold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the 
pool' ; and if I have taken any thing from 
any man by false accusation, I restore him 
fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day 
is salvation come to this house, forsomuch 
as he also is a son of Abraham, Luke xix. 
8, &c. 

Our Saviour, further to convince the 
people that the design of his mission was 
to seek and to restore life and salvation 
to lost and perishing sinners, adds, The Son 
of man is come to seek and to save that which 
ituas lost. 

While Jesus continued in the house of 
Zaccheus the publican, he spake a parable 
to his followers, who supposed, at his ar- 
rival in the royal city, he would erect the 
long expected kingdom of the Messiah. 
A certain nobleman, says he, went into a far 
country, to receive for himself a kingdom, 
and to return. And he called his ten ser- 
vants, and delivered them ten pounds, and 
said unto them, Occupy till I come. But 
his citizens hated him, and sent a mes- 
sage after him, saying, We will not have this 
man to reign over us. And it came to pass, 
that, when he was returned, having received 
the kingdom, then lie commanded these ser- 
vants to be called unto him, to whom he had 
given the money, that lie might know how 
much every man had gained by trading. 
Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound 
hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto 
him, Well, thou good servant: because thou 
hast been faithful in a very little, have 
thou authority over ten cities. And the 
second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath 
gained five pounds. And he said likewise to 
him, Be thou also over five cities. And 
another came, saying, Lord, behold here is 
thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a 
napkin: for I feared thee, because thou art 

an 



AND SAVIOUR, 

an austere man; tlwu takest up that thou 
layedst not dozen, and reapest that thou 
didst not sow. And he saith unto hirn, Out 
of thine own. mouth will I judge thee, thou 
k icked servant. Thou knewest that I was an 
austere man, taking up that I laid not down, 
and reaping that I did not sow : If herefore 
then gavest thou not my money into the bank, 
that at my coming I might have required 
mine own with usury? And lie said unto 
them that stood by, Take from him the pound, 
and give it to him that hath ten pounds. (And 
they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) 
For I say unto you, That unto every one 
which hath shall be given ; and from him that 
hath not, even that he hath shall be taken 
away from him. But those mine enemies, 
which would not that I should reign over 
them, bring hither, and slay them before me, 
Luke xix. 12, Sec. 

In this parable we have the characters of 
three sorts of men delineated by our blessed 
Saviour himself: namely, the truly faith- 
ful disciples of the Messiah, who improve 
their eveiy talent well ; those who fear and 
love the Lord, but either begin late, or are 
less diligent, and therefore are not so holv 
and useful as the first ; and the slothful 
servant, who buries his talent, or, which is 
much the same, neglects to improve it to 
the honour of God. And the treatment 
these servants met with, represents the 
final sentences that will be passed upon 
them, by the awful Judge of the whole 
earth. The true disciples shall be rewarded 
with the honours and pleasures of immor- 
tality ; the slothful, stripped of all the ad- 
vantages they so often boasted, and loaded 
with eternal infamy ; and shall sutler pun- 
ishment, severe in proportion to the de- 
gree of their guilt. 

But though this is the general sense of 
the parable, yet it has also a particular re- 
lation to the time when it was spoken: I 



JESUS CHRIS'I 183 

and was intended to teach the disciples, 
that though they might imagine the Mes- 
siah's kingdom was speedily to be erected, 
and they were soon to partake of its hap- 
piness, yet this was not to happen before 
the death of their Master; that they them- 
selves must perform a long and laborious 
course of services, before they received 
their eternal reward. That after his resur- 
rection, when he had obtained the king- 
dom, he would return from his seat of ma- 
jesty, and reckon with all his servants, and 
reward every one according to the im- 
provements he had made in the trust com- 
mitted to his care ; and that he would exe- 
cute, in an exemplary manner, his ven- 
geance on those who refused to let him 
reign over them, and did all in their power 
to hinder the erection of his kingdom 
among others. 

After speaking this parable, Jesus left 
the house of Zaccheus the publican, and 
continued his journey toward Jerusalem, 
where he purposed to celebrate the pass- 
over: he was earnestly expected by the 
people, who came up to purify themselves, 
and who began to doubt whether he would 
venture to come to the feast. This delay, 
however, was occasioned by the proclama- 
tion issued by the chief priests, promising 
a reward to any who would discover the 
place of his retirement. Now both the chief 
priests and the Pharisees had given a com- 
mandment, t/iat, if any man knew where he 
were, he should shew it, that they might take 
him, John xi. 57 . 

Six days before the passover, Jesus ar- 
rived at Bethany, and repaired to the house 
of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the 
dead. There they made him a supper; and 
Martha served: but Lazarus zvas one of 
them that sat at the table with him. Then 
took Mary a pound of ointment of spike- 
nard, very costly, and anointed the feet of 

Jesus, 



184 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair : and 
the house was filled with the odour of the 
ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, 
Judas Iscariot, Simons son, which should 
betray him, Why was not this ointment sold 
for three hundred pence, and given to the 
poor ? This he said, not that he cared for 
the poor ; but because he was a thief, and had 
the bag, and bare what was put therein. 
Then said Jesus, Let her alone : against the 
day of my burying hath she kept this. For 
the poor always ye have with you ; but me ye 
have not always, John xii. 2, &c. 

As Bethany was not above two miles 
from Jerusalem, the news of his arrival was 
soon spread through the capital, and great 
numbers of the citizens came to see Laza- 
rus, who had been raised from the dead, 
together with the great Prophet who had 
wrought so stupendous a miracle, and 
many of them were convinced both of the 
resurrection of the former, and the divi- 
nity of the latter : but the news of their 
conversion, together with the reason of it, 
being currently reported in Jerusalem, the 
chief priests were soon sensible of the 
weight so great a miracle must have on 
the minds of the people ; and therefore 
determined, if possible, to put both Jesus 
and Lazarus to death. 

Our blessed Lord, though he knew the 
design of the Jews upon him, also knew 
that it became him to fulfil all righteous- 
ness ; and was so far from declining to 
visit Jerusalem, that he even entered it in 
a public manner. When they were come 
to Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives, 
then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto 
them, Go into the village over against you, 
and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, 
and a colt with her: loose them, and bring 
them unto me. And if any man say ought 
unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath 
need of them ; and straightway he will send 



them. All this was done, that it might be 
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, 
saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Be- 
hold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and 
sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an 
ass. And the disciples went, and did as 
Jesus commanded them, and brought the 
ass, and the colt, and put on them their 
clothes, and they set him thereon. And a 
very great multitude spread their garments 
in the way ; others cut down branches from 
the trees, and strawed them in the way. And 
the multitudes that went before, and that 
followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son 
of David : Blessed is he that cometh in the 
name of the Lord; Hosanna w the highest. 
And when he was come into Jerusalem, all 
the city was moved, saying, Who is this? 
And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the 
prophet of Nazai^eth of Galilee, Matt. xxi. 
1, 2,3, &c. 

Some of the most strenuous of the deisti- 
cal tribe have endeavoured to turn this cir- 
cumstance into ridicule : but in this they 
discover the height of ignorance, because 
they judge by the prejudices of our own 
times and country. And when those who 
look no farther than the manners and the 
customs before them, examine this part of 
the sacred history by the standard of mo- 
dern prejudices, they see, or think they see, 
something quite inconsistent with the gra- 
vity and dignity of the person pretending 
to be king of the Jews, when Christ is re- 
presented entering in triumph into Jerusa- 
lem sitting on an ass. But however con- 
temptible an ass, or a man riding on that 
creature, may be at present, it was not so 
from the beginning. In many countries, 
and particularly in Judea, persons of the 
highest distinction usually rode upon 
asses. The governors of Israel are describ- 
ed, in the song of Deborah, as riding on 
white asses, Judges v. 10. And the thirty 

sons 



AND SAVIOUR, 

sons of Jair, who was judge and prince 
over Israel twenty-two years, are said to 
ride on thirty ass-colts, Judges x. 4. And 
another judge is recorded to have had forty 
sons, and thirty nephews, that rode on se- 
venty ass-colts, Judges xii. 14. 

It may, however, be asked, Supposing 
it was an usual thing to ride on an ass, why 
should this common practice be mentioned 
in relation to the Messiah, as a mark of 
distinction ? Might not the prophet, upon 
this supposition, as well have said, He shall 
come walking on foot? and would he not 
have been as well known by one character 
as by the other ? Besides, if we turn to the 
book of Zechariah, where this prophecy is 
to be found, we shall see the person there 
described to be a king, a just king, and 
one having salvation : and what is there in 
this character, of riding on the foal of an 
ass, that is peculiar to a king, to a just 
king, and to one who was to bring salvation 
and deliverance to his people ? 

These questions, however difficult they 
at first sight may appear, are easily answer- 
ed, not b} r considering the state and con- 
dition of kings in general, but that pecu- 
liar to a king of Israel, on which the pro- 
priety of this character is founded. 

If we look into the history of the rise 
and fall of nations, we shall generally find, 
that their prosperity and success were pro- 
portioned to the force and power, and to 
the conduct and abilities, of their leaders. 
But with the Jews, who from slaves in 
Egypt became a powerful people, the case 
was very different. The best and greatest 
of their kings, and he who carried their 
empire to its greatest height, has left us 
. another account of their affairs: The peo- 
ple, says he, got not the land in possession 
by their ozen snord, neither did their ozen 
arm save them ; but thy right hand, and 
thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, 



JESUS CHRIST. 185 

because thou hadst a favour unto them, Psa. 
xliv. 3, &c. 

AVhen we read these, and other similar 
passages, we are apt to ascribe them to the 
piety and devotion of the Psalmist, to con- 
sider them only as acknowledgments of 
God's general providence in the affairs of 
the world ; and hence are apt to overlook, 
or not sufficiently consider, the historical 
truth they contain. 

It is true, indeed, that all success, in the 
strictest sense, should be ascribed to God ; 
that it is he who giveth victory unto kings : 
but he generally makes use of natural 
means; and it is no offence to his provi- 
dence, that kings list their thousands of 
horse and foot, to secure themselves and 
their dominions. But with the Jews it was 
very different : they were never so weak, 
as when the}' made themselves strong ; 
never so certainly ruined, as when their 
force was great enough to create a confi- 
dence in themselves. For God had taken 
the defence of Israel upon himself ; and 
whenever the people took it out of his 
hands, to place it in their own, they we 1 
sure to be undone. 

Xay, so tender was God of his honour 
in this respect, and so concerned to justify 
his promise to protect Israel, in the eyes of 
the world, that he would not always per- 
mit natural causes to interfere in their de- 
liverance, lest the people should grow 
doubtful to whom they ought to ascribe 
their victories ; and for the same reason it 
was, that he commanded the people to 
have neither horses nor chariots of war for 
their defence. Not because they were 
thought useless in war, for it is well known 
they were the strength of the ancient king- 
doms; but because God himself had under- 
taken their defence, and he wanted neither 
horse nor foot to fight their battles. 

This law, as is evident from the Jewish 
3 A history, 



186 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



history, was observed for near four hun- 
dred years, namely, till about the middle 
of Solomon's reign. And while David 
swayed the sceptre of Israel, when the 
kingdom was carried to its utmost height, 
he himself rode upon a mule, and pro- 
vided no better equipage for his son on 
the day of his coronation. Cause Solomon, 
my son, said David, to ride upon my own 
mule, and bring him down to Gihon. And 
let Zadok the priest, and Nathan the pro- 
phet, anoint him there king over Israel, 
1 Kings i. 33, 34. And when that pious 
prince looked backhand contemplated this 
state of things, he might well say, Some 
trust in chariots, and some in horses : but we 
will remember the name of the Lord our God. 
Psa. xx. 7- 

In the reign of Solomon things quickly 
changed their aspect. He married the 
daughter of the king of Egypt, and opened 
a commerce between that country and 
his own, by which means he soon acquired 
an immense number of horses and cha- 
riots ; and all his successors, when they 
had it in their power, followed his exam- 
ple. But what did the kingdom gain by 
this change ? They were before a rich 
and flourishing people: but after breaking 
the law of the Most High, their wealth 
and power ; gradually declined; till at last 
their habitations were laid waste, their 
temple and cities burned with fire, and 
they themselves carried captive into a 
strange land. 

It may, perhaps, be asked, wherein the 
guilt of having the country full of horses 
consisted ? There is certainly no moral 
crime in purchasing and keeping these 
creatures ; but the kings of Israel were ex- 
alted to the throne, on condition that they 
should renounce the assistance of chariots 
and horses, and depend upon God for suc- 
cess in the day of battle. 



Having thus considered this law, and 
the consequences that resulted from the 
breach of it, let us now look back to the 
prophecy relating to the Messiah. Rejoice 
greatly, O daughter of Zion: shout, O daugh- 
ter of Jerusalem : Behold, thy King cometh 
unto thee : he is just, and having salvation ; 
lozoly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt 
the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the 
chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from 
Jerusalem, Zech. ix. 9> &c. 

: Such is the king who was to save the 
descendants of Jacob : and what sort of a 
king could be expected ? Is it possible to 
imagine that "God would send a king to 
save them who would be like the kings 
which had undone them? Is it not more 
reasonable to think, that he would resemble 
those who had been deliverers of their 
country ? kings who feared God, and there- 
fore feared no enemy; who though mounted 
on asses, and colts the foals of asses, were 
able to put to flight the thousands and ten 
thousands of chariots and horses that came 
against them. f 

The king foretold by the prophet was 
also to be just, meek, and lowly: but how 
could he have deserved that character, had 
he appeared in the pride and pomp of war, 
surrounded with horses and chariots, in 
direct opposition to the law of God? or, 
as he was to bring salvation to the people, 
could he make use of those means which 
God never had prospered, and which he 
declared he never would ? 

It appears then that it was essential to 
the character of a King of Israel, who was 
to be just and lowly, and to bring salvation 
with him, that he should come riding on 
an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. But 
if any doubt can yet remain, let the pro- 
phet himself explain it, who immediately 
after the description of the promised King, 
adds, And I will cut off the chariot from 

Ephraim, 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



187 



Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem : 
plainly intimating, that the character given 
of the Messiah, that he should ride on an 
ass, was in opposition to the pride of their 
warlike kings, who, by their great strength 
in chariots and horses, had ruined them- 
selves and their people. 

Thus have we undeniably shewn the in- 
tention of the prophet, when he foretold 
that the Messiah should ride on an ass; 
and from hence it appears, that the ene- 
mies of revelation have not the least reason 
for turning this transaction into ridicule. 
Was it any. reproach to. Christ to ride into 
Jerusalem on the foal of an ass, when Da- 
vid, the greatest of his ancestors, and Solo- 
mon, the wisest, as long as he was wise, 
rode in the same manner? Can the Jews 
object to this circumstance, and yet talk of 
the glories of David, and the magnificence 
of Solomon, who, in the midst of all that 
glory and magnificence, did the very same 
thing ? Or can they stumble at this cha- 
racter of the Messiah, without forgetting 
by what princes their ancestors were saved, 
and by what undone ? 

But. to leave this digression. The prodi- 
gious multitudes that now accompanied 
Jesus, filled the Pharisees and great men 
with malice and envy, because every 
method they had taken to hinder the peo- 
ple from following Jesus had proved in- 
effectual. The Pharisees therefore said 
among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail 
nothing ? Behold, the world is gone after 
him, John xii. 19- 

. But when our blessed Saviour drew near 
the city of Jerusalem, surrounded by the 
rejoicing multitude, notwithstanding the 
many affronts he had there received, he 
beheld the city with a divine generosity 
and benevolence which nothing can equal, 
wept over it, and, in the most pathetic man- 
ner, lamented the calamities which he fore- 



saw were coming upon it, because its inha- 
bitants were ignorant of the time of their 
visitation. If said he, thou hadst known, 
even thou, at least in this thy day, the things 
which belong unto thy peace! but now they 
are hid from thine eyes. For the days sliall 
come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast 
a trench about thee, and compass thee round, 
and keep thee in on every side. And shall 
lay thee even with the ground, and thy chil- 
dren within thee; and they shall not leave in 
thee one stone upon another: because thou 
knewest not the time of thy visitation, Luke 
xix. 42, &c. ' '• ■ ■ 

Behold here, ye wondering mortals, be- 
hold an example of generosity infinitely 
superior to any furnished by the heathen 
world ! An example highly worthy for 
them to imitate and admire. 

When Jesus, surrounded by the multi- 
tude, entered Jerusalem, the whole city 
was moved on account of the prodigious 
concourse of people that accompanied him, 
and their continual acclamations. Jesus 
rode immediately to the temple ; but it 
being evening, he soon left the city, to the 
great discouragement of the people, who 
expected he was immediately to have taken 
into his hands the reins of government. 
And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into 
the temple : and when he had looked round 
about upon all things, and now the even-tide 
zvas come, he went out unto Bethany with the 
twelve, Mark xi. 11. 

CHAP. XXIX. 

Jesus pronounces a Curse upon the Fig-tree, 
— Fxpels the Profaners of the Temple. — 
Assei'ts his divine Authority, and delivers 
two Parables. 

A T the earliest dawn, our blessed Sa- 
viour left Bethany, to visit again the 

capital 



18S 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



capital of Judea. And as he pursued his 
journey, he saw, at a distance, a fig-tree, 
which, from its fulness of leaves, promised 
abundance of fruit. This inviting object 
induced him to approach it, in expectation 
of finding figs, for he was hungry, and the 
season for gathering them was not yet ar- 
rived ; but on his coming to the tree, he 
found it to be really barren : upon which 
the blessed Jesus said to it, Let no fruit 
grow on thee henceforward for ever, Matt, 
xxi. 19- 

This action, which was purely emble- 
matical, and prefigured the speedy ruin 
of the Jewish nation, on account of its 
unfruitfulness, under all the advantages 
it then enjoyed, has, by the enemies of 
revelation, been represented as an action 
unbecoming the Redeemer of mankind. 
But if they had fully considered its in- 
tention, they would have been clearly con- 
vinced, that, like the rest of his miracles, 
it was done with a gracious intention: 
namely, to awaken the Jews from their 
lethargy, and, by timely repentance, pre- 
vent the total ruin of their church and 
nation. 

Being disappointed in finding fruit on 
the fig-tree, our blessed Saviour pur- 
sued his journey to Jerusalem; and, on 
his arrival, went straightway to the tem- 
ple, the outer court of which he found 
full of merchandise. A sight like this 
grieved his holy and righteous soul, so 
that he drove them all out of the temple, 
overturned the tables of the money-chan- 
gers and the seals of them that sold doves, 
and would not suffer any vessel to be car- 
ried through the temple; saying unto them, 
It is written, My house is the house of prayer, 
but ye have made it a den of thieves, Luke 
xix. 45. 

St. Jerome considers this as one of the 
greatest of all our Saviour's miracles. And 



it must be owned, that the circumstances 
are very extraordinary : that one man 
should undertake so bold, and execute so 
hazardous a task ; one man, without a 
commission from Caesar ; without any 
countenance from the Jewish rulers ; with- 
out any arms, either to terrify the multi- 
tude or defend himself. That he should 
cast out the whole tribe of mercenary 
traffickers, wrest from those worshippers 
of wealth their darling idol, and trample 
it under foot : and all this without tumult 
or opposition ; not one of the sacrilegious 
rabble daring to move the hand, or open 
the mouth. 

Whosoever, I say, reflects on the fierce 
and ungovernable nature of an enraged 
populace, and considers the outrageous zeal 
of Demetrius and the craftsmen on a less 
irritating occasion, may possibly find him- 
self almost, if not altogether, of the Latin 
father's opinion. 

There is a tradition that a certain bright 
and dazzling lustre flamed from his eyes, 
which they were unable to bear, as the 
people could not behold the face of Moses 
for the glory that surrounded him. But 
as the scriptures take no notice of this 
transcendent lustre, we must only adore 
the greatness of the fact, and, at the same 
time, so improve this miracle to our spi- 
ritual advantage, as to secure, by accept- 
ing his grace, the power of this mighty 
Reformer in our favour ; that when he 
shall come in glory, we may be safe under 
the shadow of his divine wings; while he 
takes fearful vengeance on those who pros- 
titute the most sacred places to mercenary 
purposes. 

Having dispersed this venal tribe, the 
people brought unto him the blind, the 
lame, and the diseased, who were all 
healed by the Son of God : so that the very 
children, when they saw the many mira- 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



189 



culous cures he performed, proclaimed 
him to be the great Son of David, the long 
expected Messiah. 

Such behaviour not a little incensed the 
Pharisees; but they feared the people, and 
therefore only asked him, if he heard what 
the children said? insinuating, that he 
ought to rebuke them, and not suffer them 
thus to load him with the highest praises. 
But Jesus, instead of giving a direct answer 
to their question, repeated a passage out of 
the eighth Psalm : Have ye never read, said 
the blessed Jesus, Out of the mouths of babes 
and sucklings hast thou ordained strength ? 
Giving them to understand, that the mean- 
est of God's creatures have been made in- 
strumental in spreading his praise. 

The evening being now come, Jesus, 
with his disciples, left the city, and retired 
to Bethany, where his benevolent miracle, 
in raising Lazarus from the dead, had pro- 
cured him many friends, among whom he 
was always in safety. The next morning, 
as they were returning to Jerusalem, the 
disciples were astonished at beholding the 
fig-tree that had been, but the morning 
before, declared barren, dried up from the 
roots; they had, in all probability, for- 
gotten what our Saviour had said to this 
fig-tree, till its dry and withered aspect 
brought it again to their memory. Peter, 
on seeing this astonishing phenomenon, 
said unto Jesus, Master, behold the fig-tree 
which thou cursedst is withered away ! To 
which Jesus answered, that whoever had 
faith in the Almighty, or thoroughly be- 
lieved in his miracles, should be able to 
do much greater things than the withering 
of the fig-tree. And Jesus answering, saith 
unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I 
say unto you, that nhosoever shall say unto 
this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou 
cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his 
heart, but sliall believe that those things which 



he saith shall come to pass, he sliall have 
whatsoever he saith, Mark xi. 22, 23. 

Our Lord added, that whatsoever they 
should ask by faith, they should receive ; 
and concluded by giving them directions 
concerning prayer, which was necessary to 
increase the faith he mentioned. And 
when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have 
ought against any : that your Father also 
which is in heaven may forgive you your tres- 
passes. But if ye do not forgive, neither will 
your Father which is in heaven forgive your 
trespasses, Mark xi. 25, 26. 

During the time the blessed Jesus re- 
mained in the temple, certain proselyted 
Greeks, who came up to worship at Jeru- 
salem, desired to see him, having long che- 
rished expectations of beholding the pro- 
mised Messiah. Accordingly, they applied 
to Philip, a native of Bethsaida, who men- 
tioned it to Andrew, and he told it to 
Jesus. Upon which our blessed Saviour 
told his disciples, that he should soon be 
honoured with the conversion of the Gen- 
tiles ; The hour is come, said he, that the Son 
of man should be glorified. But declared, 
that before this glorious event happened, 
he must suffer death ; illustrating the ne- 
cessity there was of his dying, by the simi- 
litude of casting grain into the earth. 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of 
wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abidcth 
alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
fruit, John xii. 24. Adding, that since 
it was absolutely necessary for him, their 
Lord and Master, to suffer the pains of 
death before he ascended the throne of 
his glory ; so they, as his followers, must 
also expect to be persecuted and spitefully 
used for his name's sake ; but if they per- 
severed, and even resolved to lose their 
lives in his service, he would reward their 
constancy with a crown of glory. At the 
same time he intimated to the strangers, 

3 B that 



1.90 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



that if their desire of conversing with him 
proceeded from a hope of obtaining from 
him temporal preferments, they would find 
themselves sadly disappointed. If (my man 

serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, 
there shall also my servant be : if any man 
serve me, him will my Father honour, John 
xii. 26. 

Our blessed Lord was now so affected, 
that he uttered, in a very pathetic man- 
ner, his grief, and addressed his heavenly 
Father for succour in his distress. Now is 
my soul troubled : and what shall I say ? Fa- 
ther, save me from this hour. But for this 
cause came I unto this hour, John xii. 27. 

This should teach us, that prayer is the 
only proper method of easing the mind 
overwhelmed with distress: but at the same 
time to be always resigned to the divine 
will ; for though the weakness of human 
nature may shrink when persecution or 
sufferings of any kind appear, yet by re- 
flecting on the wisdom, goodness, and 
power of God to deliver us, we ought to 
support every trial, however severe, with 
patience, as he doubtless purposes some 
happy ends by these afflictions. 

Our blessed Lord having made a short 
prayer to his Father, begged him to de- 
monstrate the truth of his mission by some 
token which could not be resisted. Father, 
glorify thy name. Nor had he hardly ut- 
tered these words, before he was answered 
by an audible voice from heaven, I have 
both glorified it, and will glorify it again. 
The miracles thou hast already performed 
have glorified my name ; and I will still 
continue to glorify it by other miracles, to 
be wrought before the sons of men. 

This voice was evidently supernatural, 
resembling thunder in loudness, but suffici- 
ently articulate to be understood by those 
who heard our blessed Saviour pray to his 
heavenly Father. And Jesus told his dis- 



ciples, that it was not given for his sake, 
but to confirm them in their faith of his 
mission. This voice, said he, came not be- ■ 
cause of me, but for your sokes. It came to 
confirm what I have told you relating to 
my sufferings, death, resurrection, and the 
conversion of the Gentile world to the 
Christian religion. 

Accordingly he communicated this com- 
fortable reflection to his disciples ; telling 
them, that the time was at hand, when the 
kingdom of Satan should be destroyed, and 
that of the Messiah exalted. Now is the 
judgment of this world: now shall the prince 
of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted 
up from the earth, will drazo all men unto me, 
John xii. 31, &c. 

The people, not understanding the force 
of this affirmation, replied, We have heard 
out of the law, that Christ abideth for ever: 
and how sayest thou, The Son of man must 
be lifted up? John xii. 34. Our Lord, in 
answer, told them, that they should soon be 
deprived of his presence and miracles: and, 
therefore, they would do well to listen 
attentively to his precepts, firmly believe 
the doctrines he delivered, and wisely im- 
prove them to their eternal advantage ; for 
otherwise they would be soon overtaken 
with spiritual blindness, and rendered in- 
capable of inheriting the promises of the 
gospel. That while they enjoyed the be- 
nefit of his preaching and miracles, which 
sufficiently proved the truth of his mission 
from the Most High, they should believe 
on him ; for b}^ that means alone they could 
become the children of God. Yet a little 
while is the light with you: walk tchile ye have 
the light, lest darkness come upon you ; for he 
that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he 
goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, 
that ye may be the children of light, John xii. 
35, &c. 

Having thus addressed the multitude, he 

retired 



AND SAVIOUR, 

retired privately. But, notwithstanding 
the many rairaeles our great Redeemer 
had wrought in the presence of these per- 
verse and stiff-necked people, the gene- 
rality of them refused to own him for the 
Messiah ; being filled with the vain expec- 
tations of a temporal prince, who was to 
rule over all the kingdoms of the earth, 
and place his throne in Jerusalem. Some, 
indeed, even of the rulers, believed on 
him, though they thought it prudent to 
conceal their faith, lest they should, like 
the blind man, be excommunicated, or put 
out of the synagogue ; valuing the good 
opinion of men above the approbation of 
the Almighty. 

Nevertheless, to inspire such as believed 
on him with courage, he cried in the tem- 
ple, He that bdicveth on me, believeth not on 
me, but on him that sent me, John xii. 44. 
He that acknowledges the divinity of my 
mission, acknowledges the power and grace 
of God, on whose special errand I am thus 
sent. Adding, he that seeth the miracles I 
perform, seeth the operations of that om- 
nipotent power by which I act. I am the 
Sun of righteousness, whose beams dispel 
the darkness of ignorance in which the 
sons of men are involved, and am come to 
deliver all who believe on me out of that 
palpable darkness. You must not, how- 
ever, expect that I will at present execute 
my judgment upon those who refuse to 
embrace the doctrines of the gospel ; for 
I am not come to condemn and punish, 
but to save the world, and consequently to 
try every gentle and winning method to 
reclaim the wicked from the error of their 
ways, and turn their feet into the paths of 
life and salvation. They shall not, how- 
ever, escape unpunished, who neglect the 
instructions and offers of salvation now 
made to them ; for the doctrines I have 
preached shall bear witness against them 



JESUS CHRIST. 191 

at the awful tribunal of the last day ; and 
as it has aggravated their sin, so it shall 
then heighten their punishment. 

While Jesus was thus preaching in the 
temple, a deputation of priests and elders 
was sent from the supreme council, to a-!, 
him concerning the nature of the authority 
by which he acted, whether it was a pro- 
phet, priest, or king, as no other person 
had a right to make any alterations, either 
in church or state ; and, if he had laid 
claim to either of those characters, from 
whom he received it? But our blessed Sa- 
viour, instead of giving a direct answer to 
the questions of the Pharisees, asked thi m 
another ; promising, if they resolved his 
question, he would also answer theirs 
I also will ask you one thing, which if ye telt 
me, I in likewise will tell you by what autho 
rity I do these things. The baptism of John 
whence was it? from heaven, or of men? Matt 
xx. 24, &c. 

This question puzzled the priests. Th 
considered, on the one hand, that if it was 
from God, it would oblige them to acknow- 
ledge the authority of Jesus, John having 
more than once publicly declared him to 
be the Messiah : and, on the other, if they 
peremptorily denied the authority of John, 
they would be in danger of being stoned 
by the people, who, in general, considered 
him as a prophet. They, therefore, thought 
it the most eligible method to answer, that 
they could not tell from whence John's 
baptism was. 

Thus, by declining to answer the ques- 
tion asked them by Jesus, they left him at 
liberty to decline giving the council the 
satisfaction they had sent to demand. At 
the same time the}- plainly confessed, that 
they were unable to pass any opinion 
John the Baptist, notwithstanding he 
claimed the character of a messenger from 
God, and they had sent to examine his pre- 
tensions 



1.92 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



tensions This was, in effect, to acknow- 
ledge that they were incapable of judging 
of any prophet whatsoever. Well, there- 
fore, might the blessed Jesus sav, Neither 
tell I you by what authority I do these 
things. You have no right to ask, since 
you have confessed you are unable to 
judge ; and, therefore, I shall not satisfy 
your inquiry. 

But because this deputation had said 
that they were ignorant from whence the 
baptism of John was, our blessed Saviour 
sharply rebuked them, conveying his re- 
proof in the parable of the two sons com- 
manded to work in their father's vineyard ; 
and, asking their opinion of the two, made 
them condemn themselves. 

A certain man, said he, had two sons ; and 
he came to the first, and said, Son, go work 
to-day in my vineyard. But this ungracious 
youth very roughly answered the kind 
command of his father, and without the 
least preface, or appellation of respect, an- 
swered, I will not. However, after reflect- 
ing on the impropriety and indecency of 
such behaviour to his kind and indulgent 
father, he repented of what he had done, 
and went to work in the vineyard. The 
father having met with so sharp a reply from 
the former son, had recourse to the other, 
and in the same manner ordered him to 
work that day in his vineyard. 

This son was very different from the 
former, and, in a very dutiful manner, said, 
I go, sir. But notwithstanding this seem- 
ing obedience, he delayed to do as his fa- 
ther desired ; he did not go to work in the 
vineyard. The temper and behaviour of 
the second son were exactly conformable 
to those of the Pharisees. They gave the 
Almighty the most honourable titles, and 
professed the utmost zeal for his service, 
in their prayers and praises; but at the 
same time refused to do any part of the 



work that he enjoined them. In the cha- 
racter of the other son the disposition of 
the publicans and harlots is well described. ~ 
They neither professed nor promised to do 
the will of their Creator; but when they 
came to reflect seriously on their conduct, 
and the offers of mercy which were so 
kindly made them, they submitted to our 
Saviour, and, in consequence of their faith, 
amended their lives. 

Having thus finished the parable, our 
Lord asked the Pharisees, Whether of them 
tzvain did the will of his Father? They say 
unto him, The first. They did not imme- 
diately perceive, that by this answer they 
condemned themselves, till our Saviour 
made a just application of the parable, in 
this sharp but just rebuke ; Verily I say 
unto you, that the publicans and the harlots 
go into the kingdom of God before you. For 
John came unto you in the way of righteous- , 
ness, and ye believed him not, nor entered 
into your Father's vineyard, though, like 
the second son, you promised in the most 
fair and candid manner ; but the publicans 
and harlots believed him, repented of their 
former disobedience, and entered into the 
vineyard. 

The blessed Jesus did not only rebuke 
them for rejecting the preaching of the 
Baptist, but represented the crime of the 
nation, in rejecting all the prophets which 
had been sent, since they became a nation, 
and, among the rest, the only begotten Son 
of the Most High : warning them, at the 
same time, of their danger, and the punish- 
ment that would inevitably ensue, if they 
continued in their rebellion. The outward 
economy of religion, in which they glori- 
ed, would be taken from them ; their re- 
lation to God, as his people, cancelled ; 
and the national constitution destroyed : 
but because these topics were extremely 
disagreeable, he delivered them under the 

vail 



AND SAVIOUR, 

vail of the following parable : There was, 
said he, a certain householder, which planted 
a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and 
digged a wine-press in it, and built a tower, 
and let it out to liusbandmen, and went into a 
far country, Matt. xxi. 33. 

The comparison of the church to a vine- 
yard is frequent in the sacred scripture ; 
but this particular parable, for the fuller 
conviction of the Jews, is expressly taken 
from the fifth chapter of the prophet Isaiah, 
with which they could not fail of being- 
well acquainted, nor ignorant of its mean- 
ing, as the prophet, at the end of it, adds, 
The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the 
house of Israel, and the men of Judah his 
pleasant plant : and he looked for judgment, 
but behold oppression ; for righteousness, but 
behold a cry. Our Saviour, therefore, con- 
tinued the metaphor, telling them, that 
when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent 
his servants to the husbandmen, that they 
might receive the fruits of it. And the hus- 
bandmen took his servants, and beat one, and 
killed another, and stoned another. The Al- 
mighty sent the prophets to exhort the 
Jews to entertain just sentiments of re- 
ligion, and tread in the paths of virtue; 
but the Jews, irritated at the prophets for 
the freedom they used in reproving their 
sins, persecuted and slew them with unre- 
lenting fury. 

Their wickedness, however, in killing 
these messengers, did not instantly provoke 
the Almighty to pour down his vengeance 
upon them ; he sent more prophets to ex- 
hort and reclaim them, but they met with 
no*better fate than the former. His mer- 
cy, however, still continued ; and that no 
" means might be left untried, he sent unto 
them his own Son, whose authority being 
clearly established by undeniable miracles, 
ought to have been acknowledged cheerfully 
by these wicked men ; but how different 



JESUS CHRIST. 193 

was the consequence ! When the husband- 
men saw the son, (hey said among themselves, 
This is the heir ; come, let us kill him, and h i 
us seize on his inheritance. And they caught 
him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and 
slew him. When the Lord, therefore, of the 
vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those 
husbandmen? They say unto him, He will 
miserably destroy those wicked men, and will 
let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, 
which shall render him the fruits in their sea- 
sons, Matt. xxi. 38, &c. 

Shocked at this awful representation, the 
Pharisees exclaimed, and said, God forbid ! 
surely these husbandmen will not proceed 
to such desperate iniquity : surely the vine- 
yard will not thus be taken form them. 
But to confirm the truth of this, our Saviour 
added a remarkable prophecy of himself, 
and his rejection, from the 118th Psalm. 
Did you never, said he, read in the scriptures, 
The stone which the builders refused is become 
the head-stone of the corner : this is the Lord's 
doing ; it is marvellous in our eyes ? 

This rejection of the Messiah by the 
Jews, and the reception he met with among 
the Gentiles, all brought to pass by the 
providence of God, are wonderful events; 
and therefore I say unto 3*011, the king- 
dom of God shall be taken from 3*011, and 
sjiven to a nation brinoino- forth the fruits 
thereof. 

The chief priests and Pharisees being 
afraid to apprehend Jesus, he was at liberty 
to proceed in the offices of his ministry: 
accordingly, he delivered another parable, 
wherein he described, on the one hand, 
the bad success which the preaching of 
the gospel was to meet with among the 
Jews; and, on the other, the cheerful re- 
ception given it among the Gentiles. This 
gracious design of the Almighty, in giving 
the gospel to the children of men, our 
blessed Saviour illustrated bvthe behaviour 

3C of 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



of a certain king, who, in honour of his 
son, made a great feast, to which he in- 
vited many guests. The kingdom of heaven 
is like nnto a certain king, which made a mar- 
riage for his son. This marriage supper, or 
great feast, signifies the joys of grace and 
glory, which are properly compared to an 
elegant entertainment, on account of their 
exquisiteness and duration ; and are here 
said to be prepared in honour of the Son 
of God, because they are bestowed on men 
in consequence of his sufferings in their 
stead and behalf. 

Some time before this supper was ready, 
the servants went forth to call the guests 
to the wedding : i. e. when the fulness of 
time approached, the Jews, as being the 
peculiar people of God, were first called 
by John the Baptist, and afterwards by 
Christ himself ; but they refused all these 
benevolent calls of mercy, and rejected 
the kind invitations of the gospel, though 
pressed by the preaching of the Messiah 
and his forerunner. After our Saviour's re- 
surrection and ascension, the apostles were 
sent forth to inform the Jews, that the gos- 
pel covenant was established, mansions in 
heaven prepared, and nothing wanting but 
the cheerful acceptance of the honour de- 
signed them. Again he sent forth other ser- 
vants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, 
Behold, I have prepared my dinner ; my 
oxen and my fadings are killed, and all 
things are ready : come unto the marriage. 
But these messengers were as unsuccessful 
as the former. The Jews, undervaluing 
the favour offered them, mocked at the 
message ; and some of them, more rude 
than the rest, insulted, beat, and slew the 
servants that had been sent to call them to 
the marriage supper of the Lamb. But 
' when the king heard thereof, he was wroth : 
and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed 
those murderers, and burnt up their city. 



This part of the parable plainly predicted 
the destruction of the Jews by the Roman 
armies, called here the armies of the 
Almighty, because they were appointed 
by him to execute vengeance on that 
once favourite but now rebellious peo- 
ple. 

The parable is then continued, as fol- 
lows: The king again sent forth his ser- 
vants into the countries of the Gentiles, 
with orders to compel all that they met 
with to come unto the marriage. This was 
immediately done, and the wedding was 
furnished with guests ; but when the king 
came into the apartment, he saw there a 
man, which had not on a wedding garment; 
and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest 
thou in hither, not having a wedding gar- 
ment? And he zcas speechless. Then said 
the king to the servants, Bind him hand and 
foot, and take him away, and cast him into 
outer darkness : there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but 
few are chosen, Matt. xxii. 11, &c. 

By the conclusion of the parable, we 
learn, that the profession of the Christian 
religion will not save a man, unless he be 
saved by grace, and act from Christian 
principles. Let us, therefore, who have 
obeyed the call, and are by profession the 
people of God, think often on that awful 
clay, when the King will come in to see his 
guests ; when the Almighty will, with the 
greatest strictness, view every soul that lays 
claim to the joys of heaven. Let us think 
of the speechless confusion that will seize 
such as have not on the wedding garment, 
and of the inexorable anxiety with which 
they will be consigned to weeping and 
gnashing of teeth: and let us remember, 
that to have seen, for a while, the light of 
the gospel, and the fair beamings of an 
eternal hope, will add deeper and more 
sensible horrors to these gloomy caverns 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



W5 



On the other hand, to animate and encou- 
rage us, let us anticipate the joyful hour 
which will consign us to bliss immortal. 

CHAP. XXX. 

The blessed Jesus wisely retorts on the Pha- 
risees and Herodians, who propound an in- 
tricate Question to him. — Settles the most 
important Point of the Law. — Enforces his 
Mission and Doctrine, and foretells the 
Judgment that would fall upon the Phari- 
saical Tribe. 

rilHIS representation of the state of the 
finally impenitent appearing to be 
levelled at the Pharisees, they immediately 
concerted with the Herodians and Saddu- 
cees, on the most proper method of putting 
Jesus to death. It is sufficiently evident, 
that their hatred was now carried to the 
highest pitch, because the most violent 
enmity, which had so long subsisted be- 
tween the two sects, was, on this occasion, 
suspended, and they joined together to 
execute their cruel determination on the 
Son of God. They, however, thought it 
most eligible to act very cautiously, and 
endeavour, if possible, to catch some hasty 
expression from him, that the}" might ren- 
der him odious to the people, and find 
something against him, that might serve as 
a basis for a prosecution. Accordingly, they 
sent some of their disciples to him, with 
orders to feign themselves just men, who 
maintained the greatest veneration for the 
divine law, and dreaded nothing more 
than the doing any thing inconsistent with 
its precepts; and, under this specious cloak 
of hypocrisy, to beg his determination of 
an affair that had long lain heavjr on their 
consciences ; namely, the paying tribute 
to Caesar, which the} 7 " thought inconsistent 
with their zeal for religion. This question 



was, it seems, furiously debated in our Sa- 
viour's time; one Judas, a native of Gali- 
lee, having implanted in the minds of the 
people, a notion that taxes to a foreign 
power were absolutely unlawful. A doc- 
trine so pleasing to the worldly-minded 
Jews could not fail of friends, especially 
among the lower class, and therefore must 
have many partizans among the multitude 
that then surrounded the Son of God. The 
priests therefore imagined, that it was not 
in his power to decide the point, without 
rendering himself obnoxious to some of the 
parties: if he should say it was lawful to 
pay the taxes, they believed that the peo- 
ple, in whose hearing the question was 
proposed, would be incensed against him, 
not only as a base pretender, who, on be- 
ing attacked, publicly renounced the cha- 
racter of the Messiah, which he had assum- 
ed among his friends, but also a flatterer 
of princes, and a betrayer of the liberties 
of his country; one who taught a doctrine 
inconsistent with the known privileges of 
the people of God: but if he should affirm 
that it was unlawful to pay tribute, they 
determined to inform the governor, who, 
they hoped, would punish him as a framer 
of sedition. Highly elated with their pro- 
ject, thejr accordingly came ; and, after 
passing an encomium on the truth of his 
mission, his courage, and impartiality, they 
proposed this famous question : Master, 
said they, we know that thou art true, and 
carcst for no man ; for thou regardest not the 
persons of men, but teachest the way of God in 
truth. Tell us, therefore, what thinkest thou. 
Is it lawful to give tribute to Ccesar, or not ? 
Mark x'ii. 14, 15. 

But the blessed Jesus saw their secret 
intentions, and accordingly called them 
hypocrites; to signify, that though they 
pretended to make conscience of, and shew 
a regard for, the will of God, in proposing 



196 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



this question, he saw through the thin vail 
that concealed their design from the eyes 
of mortals, and knew that their intention 
was to ensnare him. 

Fie, however, did not decline answering 
their question, but previously desired to see 
a piece of the tribute-money. The piece 
was accordingly produced, and proved to 
be coined by the Romans. Upon which 
our blessed Saviour answered them — Since 
this money bears the image of Caesar, it is 
his; and by making use of it, you acknow- 
ledge his authority. But at the same time 
that you discharge your duty to the civil 
magistrate, you should never forget the 
duty you owe to your God ; but remem- 
ber, that as you profess to bear the image 
of the great, the omnipotent King, you are 
his subjects, and ought to love him with all 
your heart, and serve him to the very ut- 
most of your power. 

The Pharisees and their followers, under 
a pretence of religion, often justified sedi- 
tion: but the Herodians, in order to ingra- 
tiate themselves with the reigning powers, 
made them a compliment of their con- 
sciences, complying with whatever the}- 
enjoined, however opposite their com- 
mands might be to the divine law. Our 
Lord, therefore, adapted his answer to them 
both, exhorting them, in their regards to 
God and the magistrate, to give each his 
due; there being no inconsistency between 
their rights, when their rights only are in- 
sisted on. 

So unexpected an answer quite discon- 
certed and silenced these crafty enemies. 
They were astonished both at his having 
discovered their design, and his wisdom in 
avoiding the snare they had so artfully laid 
for him. When they had heard these words, 
they marvelled, and left him, and went their 
way, Matt. xxii. 22. 

Though our Lord thus wisely obviated 



their crafty designs, enemies came against 
him from every quarter. The Sadducees, 
who denied the doctrine of a future state, 
together with the existence of angels and 
spirits, came forward to the charge ; pro- 
posing to him their strongest argument 
against the resurrection, which they de- 
duced from the law given by Moses with 
regard to marriage. Master, said they, 
Moses wrote unto us, If any mans brother 
die, having a wife, and he die without chil- 
dren, that his brother should take his wife, 
and raise up seed unto his brother. There 
were, therefore, seven brethren ; and the first 
took a wife, and died without children. Ana 
the second took her to zvife, and he died 
childless. And the third took her ; and in 
like manner the seven also. And they left no 
children, and died. Last of all, the woman died 
also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose 
wife of them is she ? for seven had her to wife, 
Luke xx. 28, &c. 

The Sadducees, who believed the soul to 
be nothing more than a refined matter, 
were persuaded, that if there were any fu- 
ture state, it must resemble the present ; 
and that being in that state material and 
mortal, the human race could not be con- 
tinued, nor the individuals rendered hap- 
py, without the pleasures and conveni- 
ences of marriage. And hence considered 
it as a necessary consequence of the doc- 
trine of the resurrection, or a future state, 
that every man's wife should be restored to 
him. 

But this argument our blessed Saviour 
soon confuted, by telling the Sadducees 
they were ignorant of the power of God, 
who had created spirit as well as matter, 
and who can render man completely happy 
in the enjoyment of himself. He also ob- 
served, that the nature of the life obtained 
in a future state made marriage altoge- 
ther superfluous, because, in the world to 

come, 



AND SAVIOUR, 

come, men being spiritual and immortal, 
like the angels, there was no need of na- 
tural means to propagate or continue the 
kind. Ye do err, said the blessed Jesus, 
not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of 
God. For in the resurrection they neither 
marry nor are given in marriage, Matt. xxii. 
29, 30. Neither can they die any more : for 
they are equal unto the angels; and are the 
children of God, being the children of the 
resurrection, Luke xx. 36. Hence we may 
observe, that good men are called the 
children of the Most High, from their in- 
heritance at the resurrection, and particu- 
larly on account of their being adorned 
with immortality. 

Having thus shewn their folly and un- 
belief, he proceeded to shew that they 
were also ignorant of the scriptures, and 
particularly of the writings of Moses, from 
whence they had drawn their objection, 
by demonstrating from the very law itself, 
the certainty of a resurrection, at least 
that of just men ; and consequently quite 
demolished the opinion of the Sacldu- 
cees, who, believing the materiality of the 
soul, affirmed that men were annihilated 
after their death, and that their opinion 
was founded on the writings of Moses. — 
Now, said our Saviour, that the dead are 
raised, even Moses shezved at the bush, when 
he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For 
he is not a God of the dead, but of the living; 
for all live unto him, Luke xx. 37, 38. As 
if he had said, The Almighty cannot pro- 
perly be called the God of Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob, unless they exist ; for he is not 
a God of the dead, but of the living. Since, 
therefore, Moses called him the God of 
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God 
of Jacob, long after these venerable pa- 
triarchs were dead, the relation denoted by 
the word of God still subsisted between 



JESUS CHRIST. 197 

them; consequently they were not anni- 
hilated, as you pretend, but are still in 
being, and continue to be the servants oi 
the Most High. 

This argument effectually silenced the 
Sadducees, and agreeably surprised the peo- 
ple, to see the objection, hitherto thought 
impregnable, totally abolished, and the sect 
they had long abominated fully confuted. 
And when the multitude heard this, they were 
astonished at his doctrine, Matt. xxii. 33. 

Nor could even the Pharisees refrain 
from giving the Saviour of mankind the 
praise due to his superlative wisdom ; for 
one of the Scribes desired him to give his 
opinion on a question often debated among 
their teachers; namely, which was the great 
commandment of the law? The true rea- 
son for their proposing this question was, 
to try whether he was as well acquainted 
with the sacred law, and the debates that 
had arisen on different parts of it, as he was 
ready in deriving arguments from the in- 
spired writers, to destroy the tenets of those 
who denied a future state. 

In order to understand the question pro- 
posed to our blessed Saviour by the Scribe, 
it is necessary to observe, that some of the 
most learned rabbies had declared, that 
the law of sacrifice was the great com- 
mandment ; some that it was the law of 
circumcision ; and others, that the law of 
meats and washings had merited that title. 

Our blessed Saviour, however, shewed 
that they were all mistaken, and that the 
great commandment of the law is the duty 
of piety: and particular^ mentioned that 
comprehensive summary of it, given by 
Moses ; Hear, O Israel ; The Lord our God 
is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord 
tliy God with all tin/ licart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
strength. This is the first commandment , 
Mark xii. 29, 30. 

3 D The 



193 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



The first and chief commandment is, to 
give God our hearts. The Divine Being is 
so transcendently amiable in himself, and 
has, by the innumerable benefits con- 
ferred upon us, such a title to our utmost 
affection, that no obligation bears any pro- 
portion to that of loving him. The honour 
assigned to this precept, proves that piety 
is the noblest act of the human mind ; and 
that the chief ingredient in piety is love, 
founded on a clear and extensive view of 
the divine perfections, harmonizing in our 
redemption by Christ, a permanent sense 
of his benefits, and a deep conviction of 
his being the sovereign good, our portion, 
and our happiness. But it is essential to 
love, that there be a delight in contem- 
plating the beauty of the object beloved, 
whether that beauty be a matter of sensation 
or reflection ; that we frequently, and with 
pleasure, reflect on the benefits conferred 
on us by the object of our affections; that 
we have a strong desire of pleasing him, 
great fear of doing any thing to offend 
him, and a sensible joy in thinking we are 
beloved in return. Hence, the duties of 
devotion, prayer, and praise, are the most 
natural and genuine exercise of the love 
of God. Nor is this grace so much any 
single affection, as the continual bent of 
all the affections and powers of the soul : 
consequently, to love God is, as much as 
possible, to direct the whole soul towards 
him, and to exercise all its faculties on him 
as its chief object. 

Accordingly, the love of God is de- 
scribed in scripture by the several opera- 
tions of the mind, a following hard after 
God; namely, by intense contemplation; 
a sense of his perfections, gratitude for his 
benefits, trust in his goodness, attachment 
to his service, resignation to his providence, 
the obeying his commandments, admira- 
tion, hope, fear, &c. not because it con- 



sists in any of those singly, but in them 
all together; for, to content ourselves with 
partial regards to the Supreme Being, is 
not to be affected towards him in the man- 
ner we ought to be, and which his perfec- 
tions claim. 

Hence the words of the precept are, 
Thou shalt, love the Lord thy God, with all 
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy mind, and nith all thy strength ; that is, 
with the joint force of all thy faculties ; 
and, therefore, no idol whatsoever must 
partake of the love and worship that is due 
to him. But the beauty and excellency 
of this state of mind is best seen in its 
effects : for the worship and obedience 
flowing from such an universal bent of the 
soul towards God, is as much superior to 
the worship and obedience arising from 
partial considerations, as the brightness of 
the sun is to any picture that can be drawn 
of that luminary. 

For example, if we look upon God only 
as a stern lawgiver, who can and will pu- 
nish our rebellion, it may indeed force an 
awe and dread of him, and as much obe- 
dience to his laws as we think will satisfy 
him ; but can never produce that con- 
stancy in our duty, that delight in it, and 
that earnestness to perform it in its utmost 
extent, which are produced and main- 
tained in the mind by the sacred fire ot 
divine love, or by the bent of the whole soul 
turned towards God, as a reconciled father ; 
a frame the most excellent that can be con- 
ceived, and the most to be desired, because 
it constitutes the highest perfection and real 
happiness of the creature. 

Again, this commandment requires us to 
fear God ; and certainly we cannot love 
the Lord our God, unless we fear and re- 
verence him: for as the love, so the fear ot 
God, is the sum of all the commandments, 
and indeed the substance of all religion. 

Praver 



AND SAVIOUR, 

Prayer and praise are the tribute and ho- 
mage of religion: by the one we acknow- 
ledge our dependence upon God ; by the 
other we confess that all our blessings and 
comforts are from him. Such, therefore, 
as neither pray to God, nor praise him, 
cannot be said to have a God ; for they 
acknowledge none, but are gods to them- 
selves. And as the love and fear of God 
are often used in scripture for his whole 
worship and service, so is this invocation 
of his name : Four out thy fury upon the 
heathen, and upon the families that have not 
called upon thy name ; that is, those who do 
not worship or serve him. 

But to return. Our blessed Saviour hav- 
ing thus answered the question put to him 
by the Scribe, added, that the second com- 
mandment was that which enjoined the 
love of our neighbour. 

This had indeed no relation to the 
lawyer's question concerning the first com- 
mandment; yet our blessed Lord thought 
proper to shew him which w r as the second, 
probably because the men of this sect did 
not acknowledge the importance and pre- 
cedency of love to their neighbour ; or 
because these were remarkably deficient in 
the practice of it, as Jesus himself had 
often found in their attempts to kill him. 
And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love 
thy neighbour as thyself. 

This principle of love to God will be 
also fruitful of every good work. It will 
make us really perform the duties of all re- 
lations in which we stand. And because 
love worketh no ill to his neighbour, there- 
fore it is the fulfilling of the law ; for it 
will prompt us to a cheerful and ready 
performance of every office, whether of 
justice or charity, that we owe to our 
neighbour. All the best things we can 
do, if destitute of this principle, will ap- 
pear either to be the effect of hypocrisy, 



JESUS CHRIST. 199 

or done to procure the esteem of men. 
Without love, a narrowness of soul will 
shut us up within ourselves, and make all 
we do to others only as a sort of merchan- 
dise, trading for our own advantage. It is 
love only that opens our hearts to consider 
other persons, and to love them on their 
own account, or rather on account of God, 
who is love. 

Those who possess such a temper of 
mind, have a constant calm within, and 
are not disturbed with passion, jealousy, 
envy, or ill-nature. They observe and re- 
joice in the happiness of others; they are 
glad to see them easy, and share with them 
in their joy and felicity ; not fretting or 
complaining, though they enjoy less than 
their neighbours. 

It is true, love has a very different effect ; 
for the same temper will render many so 
considerate of the misfortunes of others, as 
to sympathize with them in their distress, 
and be greatly affected with such objects 
of compassion as it is not in their power to 
assist. But there is a real pleasure even in 
this compassion, as it melts us to the great- 
est tenderness, and proves us to be men and 
Christians. The good man, by the over- 
flowings of nis love, is sure that he is in 
favour with his Maker, because he loves 
his neighbour. His soul dwells at ease; 
there is sweetness in all his thoughts and 
wishes. This makes him clear in his views 
of every kind, and renders him grateful to 
all good men around him. 

This charitable temper also maintains 
in him a constant disposition for prayer. 
A charitable man, who has occasion to 
forbear and forgive others, and to return 
good for evil, dares, with an humble assur- 
ance, to lay claim to mercy and pardon, 
through the alone merits of his blessed 
Redeemer. 

But we return to the Scribe, who was 

astonished 



200 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



astonished at the justness of our Saviour's 
decisions, and answered, That he had de- 
termined rightly, since there is but one 
supreme God, whom we must all adore: 
and if we love him above all temporal 
things, and our neighbour as ourselves, we 
worship him more acceptably than if we 
sacrifice to him all the cattle upon a thou- 
sand hills. Our blessed Lord highly ap- 
plauded the piety and wisdom of this re- 
flection, by declaring that the person who 
made it was not far from the kingdom of 
God. 

As the Pharisees, during the course of 
our Saviour's ministry, had proposed to 
him many difficult questions, with intent 
to prove his prophetical gifts, he now, in 
his turn, thought proper to make a trial of 
their knowledge in the sacred writings. 
For this purpose, he asked their opinion 
of a difficulty concerning the Messiah's 
pedigree. What think ye of Christ ? whose 
son is he ? They say unto him, The son of 
David, Matt. xxii. 42. I know, answered 
Jesus, you say Christ is the son of David ; 
but how can you support your opinion, 
or render it consistent with the words of 
David, who himself calls him Lord: and 
how is he his son? It seems the Jewish 
doctors did not imagine that their Mes- 
siah would be endued with any perfections 
greater than those that might be enjoyed 
by human nature : for though they called 
him the Son of God, they had no notion 
that he had a divine power from heaven, 
and therefore could not pretend to solve the 
difficulty. 

The latter question, however, might 
have convinced them of their error ; for 
if the Messiah was only to be a secular 
prince, as they supposed, and to rule over 
the men of his own time, he never could 
have been called Lord, by persons who 
died before he was born; far less would 



so mighty a prince as David, who was also 
his progenitor, have conferred on him that 
title. Since, therefore, he rules over not 
only those of former ages, but even over 
the kings from whom he was himself de- 
scended, and his kingdom comprehends 
the men of all countries and times, past, 
present, and to come; the doctors, if they 
had thought accurately upon the subject, 
should have expected in their Messiah a 
king different from all other kings. Be- 
sides, he is to sit at God's right hand till all 
his enemies are made his footstool. 

Such solid reasoning gave the people an 
high opinion of his wisdom ; and shewed 
them how far he was superior to their most 
renowned rabbins, whose arguments, to 
prove their opinions and answers to the 
objections which were raised against him, 
were in general, very weak and trifling. 
Nay, his foes themselves, from the repeated 
proofs they had received of the prodi- 
gious depth of his understanding, were im- 
pressed with such an opinion of his wisdom, 
that they judged it impossible to entangle 
him in his talk. Accordingly, they left off 
attempting it, and from that day forth 
troubled him no more with their insidious 
questions. 

But having mentioned the final con- 
quest and destruction of his enemies, who 
were to be made his footstool, agreeably 
to the prediction of the royal psalmist, he 
turned towards his disciples; and, in the 
hearing of the multitude, solemnly cau- 
tioned them to beware of the Scribes and 
Pharisees ; insinuating thereby who the 
enemies were whose destruction he had 
mentioned. The Scribes and the Pharisees, 
said he, sit in Moses' seat. All, therefore, 
whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe 
and do : but do not ye after their works ; for 
they say, and do not, Matt, xxiii. 2, 3. 

While they teach the doctrines before 

delivered 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



201 



delivered by Moses, observe all they say ; 
but by no means imitate their practices ; 
for they impose many precepts on their 
disciples, which they never perform them- 
selves. For they bind heavy burthens, and 
grievous to be borne, and lay them on mens 
shoulders; but they themselves will not move 
them with one of their fingers. Hut all their 
works they do for to be seen of men, Matt, 
xxiii. 4, 5. 

The difficult precepts they impose on 
others are never regarded by these hypo- 
crites; and any good action they may hap- 
pen to perform is vitiated by the principle 
from whence it proceeds. They do it only 
with a view to gain popular applause, and 
not from a regard to God ; far less from a 
love of gooduess. They are proud and 
arrogant to excess, as is plain from their 
affected gravity in their clothes ; from the 
anxiety they discover lest they should not 
obtain the principal seats in the public 
assemblies, and from their affecting to be 
saluted in the streets with the sounding 
titles of Rabbi and Father. They make 
broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the bor- 
ders of their garments, and love the upper- 
most rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in 
the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, 
and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, Matt, 
xxiii. 5, 6, 7. 

The word Rabbi, signifies, properly, my 
Master, and was given to those men who 
had rendered themselves remarkable for 
the extent of their learning ; it is therefore 
no wonder that the proud and supercilious 
Pharisees were fond of a title, which so 
highly complimented their understandings, 
and gave them great authority with their 
followers. 

But the disciples of the blessed Jesus 
were to decline this title, because the 
thing signified by it belonged solely to 
their Master, in whom are hid all the 



treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and 
because they owed no part of their know- 
ledge to themselves, but derived it entirely 
from him who came down from heaven. 
But be not ye called Rabbi : for one is your 
Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. 
And call no man your father upon the earth : 
for one is your Father, which is in heaven, 
Matt, xxiii. 8, 9- Life, with all its bless- 
ings, comes from God, and men wholly 
depend upon him ; all praise and thank- 
fulness, therefore, should ultimately be re- 
ferred to him : so that if any one teacheth 
rightly, not the teacher, but the wisdom 
of the Almighty, is to be praised, which 
exerts and communicates itself by him. 

Nor were the disciples of our blessed 
Saviour to accept of the title of master, or 
leader, which the Jewish doctors also court- 
ed; because, in point of commission and 
inspiration, they were all equal, neither 
had they any title to rule the consciences 
of men, except by virtue of the inspiration 
which they had received from their Mas- 
ter, to whom alone the prerogative of in- 
fallibility belonged. Neither be ye called 
masters : for one is your Master, even Christ, 
Matt, xxiii. 10. 

The divine Teacher, however, did not 
intend by this to intimate, that it was sin- 
ful to call men by the stations they held 
in the world: he only intended to reprove 
the simplicity of the common people, who 
loaded their teachers with praises, and for- 
got to ascribe any thing to God ; and to 
root out of the minds of his apostles the 
Pharisaical vanity which decked itself 
with honour belonging solely to the Cre- 
ator of the universe. Accordingly, that 
he might instil into their hearts humility, 
to dispose them to do good offices to one 
another, as occasion offered, he assured 
them it was the only road to true great- 
ness; for by assuming what did not pro- 

3 E perly 



202 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



perly belong to them, they should be de- 
spised both by God and men. Whereas, 
those who did not disdain to perform the 
meanest offices of love to their brethren, 
should enjoy a high degree of the divine 
favour. 

The above discourses greatly incensed 
the Scribes and Pharisees, as they were 
pronounced in the hearing of many of that 
order ; it is therefore no wonder that they 
watched every opportunity to destroy him. 
But this was not a time to put their bloody 
designs in execution ; the people set too 
high a value on his doctrine, to suffer any 
violence to be offered to his person ; and 
as this was the last sermon he was ever to 
preach in public, it was necessary that he 
should use some severity, as all his mild 
persuasions proved ineffectual. 

He therefore denounced, in the most 
solemn manner, dreadful woes against them, 
not on account of the personal injuries he 
had received from them, but on account of 
their excessive wickedness. 

They were public teachers of religion ; 
and therefore should have used every me- 
thod in their power to recommend its pre- 
cepts to the people, and to have been 
themselves shining examples of every duty 
it enjoined : but, on the contrary, they 
abused every mark and character of good- 
ness for all the purposes of villany, and, 
under the cloak of a severe and sanctified 
aspect, they were malicious, implacable, 
lewd, covetous, and rapacious. In a word, 
instead of being reformers, they were the 
corrupters of men, and consequently their 
wickedness deserved the greatest reproof 
that could be given by the great Redeemer 
of mankind. Wo unto you, Scribes and Pha- 
risees ^ hypocrites! for ye shut up the king- 
dom of heaven against men : for ye neither go 
in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that arc 
entering to go in. Wo unto you, Scribes and 



Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye devour widows' 
houses, and for a pretence make long prayers : 
therefore ye shall receive the greater damna- 
tion. Wo unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to 
make one proselyte; and when lie is made, ye 
make him two-fold more the child of hell than 
yourselves, Matt, xxiii. 13, &c. 

The punishment you shall suffer will be 
terribly severe, because you have given a 
wrong interpretation of the ancient pro- 
phecies concerning the Messiah, and done 
all that is in your power to hinder the peo- 
ple from repenting of their sins, and be- 
lieving the gospel; because you have com- 
mitted the grossest iniquities, and, under 
the cloak of religion, have devoured the 
substance of widows and orphans, hoping 
to hide your villanies by long prayers ; 
because ye have expressed the greatest zeal 
imaginable in making proselytes, not with 
a view to render the Gentiles more wise 
and virtuous, but to acquire their riches, 
and a command over their consciences : 
and instead of teaching them the precepts 
of virtue, and the great duties of religion, 
you confine them to superstitious and cere- 
monial institutions; and hence they often 
relapse into their old state of Heathenism, 
and become more wicked than before their 
conversion, and consequently liable to a 
more severe sentence. 

He also exposed their doctrine concern- 
ing oaths; and declared, in opposition to 
their abominable tenets, that every oath, 
if the matter of it be lawful, is obligatory ; 
because, when men swear by any part of 
the creation, it is an appeal to the Creator 
himself; for in any other light an oath of 
this kind is absolutely ridiculous, the ob- 
ject having neither knowledge of the fact, 
nor power to punish the perjury. Wo unto 
you, ye blind guides! which say, JJhosoever 
i shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but 

whosoever 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



203 



whosoever shall swear by the gold of the tem- 
ple, he is a debtor. Ye fools, and blind ! for 
whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that 
sanctifieth the gold? And, Whosoever shall 
swear by the altar, it is nothing ; but whosoever 
sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is 
guilty. Ye fools, and blind! for whether is 
greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth 
the gift ? Whoso therefore shall swear by the 
altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 
And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth 
by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And 
he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the 
throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon, 
Matt, xxiii. 16, &c. 

He likewise reprehended their super- 
stitious practices, in observing the minutest 
parts of the ceremonial precepts of the law, 
and at the same time utterly neglecting the 
eternal and indispensable rules of righteous- 
ness. Wo unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe of mint, and 
anise, and cummin ; and have omitted the 
weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, 
and faith: these ought ye to have done, and 
not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, 
which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel, 
Matt, xxiii. 23, &c. 

Their hypocrisy did not escape the cen- 
sure of the Son of God ; they spared no 
pains to appear virtuous in the eyes of the 
world, and maintain an external conduct 
that should acquire the praises of men ; but 
at the same time neglected to adorn their 
souls with the robe of righteousness, which 
is the only ornament that can render them 
dear in the sight of their Maker. Wo unto 
you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
make clean the outside of the cup and of the 
platter, but within they are full of extortion 
and excess. Tliou blind Pharisee! cleanse first 
that which is within the cup and platter, that 
the outside of them may be clean also, Matt, 
xxiii. 25. Cleanse first thy mind, the in- 



ward man, from evil dispositions and affec- 
tions, and the outward behaviour will of 
course be virtuous and praise-worthy. 

Moreover, he animadverted upon the 
success of their hypocrisy. They deceived 
the simple and unthinking part of man- 
kind with their pretended sanctity, ap- 
pearing like whited sepulchres, beautiful 
on the outside, while their inward parts 
were full of uncleanness. Wo unto you, 
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are 
like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed ap- 
pear beautiful outward, but are within full of 
dead ??ien's bones, and of all uncleanness. 
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto 
men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and 
iniquity, Matt, xxiii. 27, 28. 

He also reproved the pains the} r had 
taken in adorning the sepulchres of the 
prophets ; because they pretended a great 
veneration for their memories, and even 
condemned their fathers who killed them, 
saying, that if they had lived in the days 
of their fathers they would have opposed 
such monstrous wickedness ; while, at the 
same time, all their actions abundantly 
proved that they still cherished the same 
spirit they condemned in their fathers, per- 
secuting the messengers of the Most High, 
particularly his only begotten Son, whom 
they were determined to destroy. Wo 
unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! 
because ye build the tombs of the prophets, 
and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 
and say, If we had been in the days of our 
fathers, we would not have been partakers with 
them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore 
ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the 
children of them which killed the prophets, 
Matt, xxiii. 29, &c. 

He added, that the Divine Being was 
desirous of trying every method for their 
conversion, though all these instances of 
mercy were slighted, and that they must 

expect 



204 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



expect such terrible vengeance as should 
be a standi no; monument of the divine dis- 
pleasure against all the murders committed 
by the sons of men, from the foundation of 
the world. 

Having thus laid before them their hei- 
nous guilt and dreadful punishment, he was, 
at the thought of the calamities which 
were soon to fall upon them, exceedingly 
moved, and his breast filled with sensations 
of pity to such a degree, that, unable to 
contain himself, he brake forth into tears, 
bewailing the hard lot of the city of Jeru- 
salem ; for, as its inhabitants had more 
deeply imbrued their hands in the blood 
of the prophets, they were to drink more 
deeply of the punishment due to such 
crimes. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that 
killest the prophets, and stonest them which 
are sent unto thee, how often would I have 
gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and 
ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto 
you desolate, Matt, xxiii. 37? &c 

This benevolent, as well as pathetic, ex- 
clamation of our blessed Lord, cannot fail 
to excite in the pious mind the warmest 
emotions of love to the gracious Saviour 
of mankind, as well as pity for that once 
chosen, but since degenerate race. How 
often had the Almighty called upon them 
to return from their evil way, before he 
sent his only begotten Son into the world! 
How often, how emphatically, did the 
compassionate Jesus entreat them to em- 
brace the merciful terms now offered them 
by the Almighty; and with what uncon- 
querable obstinacy did they refuse the be- 
nevolent offers, and resist the most winning 
expressions, of the divine love ! By the 
word house, our blessed Saviour meant the 
temple, which was from that time to be left 
unto them desolate ; the glory of the Lord, 
which Haggai had prophesied should fill 



the second house, was now departing from 
it. Adding, I say unto you, Ye shall not see 
me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he 
that cometh in the name of the Lord, Matt, 
xxiii. 39- As if he had said : As ye have 
killed the prophets, and persecuted me, 
whom the Father hath sent from the courts 
of heaven, and will shortly put me, who 
am the Lord of the temple, to death, your 
holy house shall be left desolate, and your 
nation totally deserted by me ; nor shall 
you see me any more, till ye shall acknow- 
ledge the dignity of my character, and the 
importance of my mission, and say with 
the whole earth, Blessed is he that cometh in 
the name of the Lord. 

Thus did the blessed Jesus strip the 
Scribes and Pharisees of their hypocritical 
mask. He treated them with severity, 
because their crimes were of the blackest 
dye: and hence we should learn to be 
really good, and not flatter ourselves that 
we can cover our crimes with the cloak of 
hypocrisy, from that piercing eye from 
which nothing is concealed. 

The people could not fail being asto- 
nished at these discourses, as they had 
always considered their teachers as the 
most righteous amongst the sons of men. 
Nay, the persons themselves, against whom 
they were levelled, were confounded, be- 
cause their own consciences convinced 
them of the truth of every particular laid 
to their charge. They therefore knew 
not what course to pursue ; and, in the 
midst of their hesitation, they let Jesus 
depart, without making any attempt to 
seize him, or inflict on him any kind of 
punishment. 

CHAP. XXXI. 

Our Saviour commends even the smallest Act, 
because it proceeded from a truly benevo- 
lent Motive. — Predicts the Demolition of 

the 



AND SAVIOUR, 

the magnificent Temple of Jerusalem, and 
■■ delivers several instructive Parables. 

ESUS, the infallible preacher of righ- 
teousness, having thus exposed the se- 
cret practices of the Scribes and Pharisees, 
repaired with his disciples, into the court 
of the women, called the treasury, from se- 
veral chests being fixed to the pillars of the 
portico surrounding the court, for receiving 
the offerings of those who came to worship 
in the temple. While he continued in this 
court, he beheld how the people cast money into 
the treasury: and many that were rich cast in 
much. And there came, a certain poor widow, 
and she threw in two mites, which make a 
farthing. And he called unto him his disci- 
ples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, 
that this poor widow hath cast more in than all 
they which have cast into the treasury. For 
all they did cast in of their abundance ; but 
she of her want did cast in all that she had, 
even all her living, Mark xii. 41, <Scc. 

Though the offering given by this poor 
widow was in itself very small, yet, in pro- 
portion to the goods of life she enjoyed, it 
was remarkably large : for it was all she 
had, even all her living. In order, there- 
fore, to encourage charity, and shew that 
it is the disposition of the mind, not the 
magnificence of the offering, that attaches 
the regard of the Almighty, the Son of 
God applauded this poor widow, as hav- 
ing given more, in proportion, than any of 
the rich. Their offerings, though great 
in respect of her s, were but a small part 
of their estates ; whereas her offering was 
her whole stock. And from this passage 
of the gospel we should learn, that the 
poor, who in appearance are denied the 
means of doing charitable offices, are en- 
couraged to do all they can. For how 
small soever the gift may be, the Al- 
mighty, who beholds the heart, values it, 



JESUS CHRIST. 205 

not according to what it is in itself, but 
according to the disposition with which it 
is given. 

On the other hand, we should learn 
from hence, that it is not enough for the 
rich that they exceed the poor in the gifts 
of charity; they should bestow in propor- 
tion to their income ; and they would do 
well to remember, that a little given, where 
a little only is left, appears a much nobler 
offering in the sight of the Almighty, and 
discovers a more benevolent and humane 
temper of mind, than sums much larger 
bestowed out of a plentiful abundance. 

The disciples now remembered that 
their Master, at the conclusion of his pa- 
thetic lamentation over Jerusalem, had de- 
clared that the temple should not any more 
be favoured with his presence, till they 
should say, Blessed is he that cometh in the 
name of the Lord. 

A declaration of this kind could not fail 
of greatly surprising his disciples ; and 
therefore, as he was departing from that 
sacred structure, they desired him to ob- 
serve the beauty of the building ; insinu- 
ating, that they thought it strange he 
should intimate an intention of leaving it 
desolate ; that so glorious a fabric, cele- 
brated in every corner of the earth, was not 
to be deserted rashly ; and that they should 
think themselves supremely happy, when 
he, as the Messiah and descendant of Da- 
vid, should take possession of it, and erect 
his throne in the midst of Jerusalem. 
And as they went out of the temple, one of 
his disciples said unto him, Master, see 
what manner of stones and what buildings are 
here ! 

The eastern wall of the temple, which 
fronted the mount of Olives, whither the 
disciples, with their Master, were then re- 
tiring, was built from the bottom of the 
valley to a prodigious height, with stones 




206 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



of an incredible bulk, firmly compacted 
together, and therefore made a very grand 
appearance at a distance. The eastern 
wall is supposed to have been the only 
remains of Solomon's temple, and had 
escaped when the Chaldeans burnt it. But 
this building, however strong or costly it 
appeared, our Saviour told them, should 
be totally destroyed. Seest thou, said he, 
these great buildings ? there shall not he left 
one stone upon another that shall not be thrown 
dozen, Mark xiii. 2. 

That noble edifice, raised with much 
labour, and at a vast expense, shall be 
razed to the very foundation. The dis- 
ciples, therefore, when they heard their 
Master aflirm, that not so much as one of 
these enormous stones, which had with- 
stood the fury of Nebuchadnezzar's army, 
and survived the destructive hand of time, 
was to be left one upon another, they per- 
ceived that the whole temple was to be 
demolished, but did not suspect that the 
sacrifices were to be taken away, and a 
new mode of religion introduced, which 
rendered the temple unnecessary. They 
therefore flattered themselves that the fabric 
then standing, however glorious it might 
appear, was too small for the numerous 
worshippers who would frequent it, when 
all the nations of the world were subject to 
the Messiah's kingdom; and was therefore 
to be pulled down in order to be erected on 
a more magnificent plan, suitable to the 
idea they had conceived of his future em- 
pire. Filled with these pleasing imagina- 
tions, they received the news with pleasure, 
meditating, as they walked to the mountain, 
on the glorious things which were shortly to 
come to pass. 

When they arrived on the mount of 
Olives, and their Master had taken his seat 
on some eminence, from whence thev had 
a prospect of the temple, and part of the 



city, his disciples drew near, to know when 
the demolition of the old structure was to 
happen, and what were to be the signs of , 
his coming, and of the end of the world. 

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the 
disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell 
us, when shall these tlmigs be ? and what shall 
be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the 
world? Matt. xxiv. 3. 

The disciples, by this request, seemed 
desirous of knowing what signs should pre- 
cede the erection of that extensive empire, 
over which they supposed the Messiah was 
to reign ; for they still expected he would 
govern a secular kingdom. They, there- 
fore, connected the demolition of the tem- 
ple with their Master's coming, though they 
had not the least notion that he was to 
destroy the nation, and change the form of 
religious worship. 

They, therefore, meant by the end of the 
world, or, as the words should have been 
translated, the end of the ages, the period 
of the political government then executed 
by Heathen procurators ; and considered 
their Master's coming to destroy the con- 
stitution then subsisting, as a very desirable 
event. They also thought the demolition 
of the temple proper, as they expected a 
larger and more superb building, propor- 
tioned to the number of the Messiah's sub- 
jects, would be erected in its stead. 

That this is the real sense of the dis- 
ciples' question, will sufficiently appear, if 
we consider that the disciples were de- 
lighted with the prospect; whereas, if they 
had meant, by the end of the world, the final 
period of all things, the destruction of the 
temple would have exhibited to them, in 
their present temper of mind, a melancholy 
prospect, which they could not have be- 
held without a deep concern. 

Our blessed Saviour, therefore, was care- 
ful to convince them of their mistake, by 

telling 



AND SAVIOUR, 

telling them, that he was not come to rule 
a secular empire, as they supposed, but to 
punish the Jews for their perfidy and re- 
bellion, by destroying both their temple 
and nation. Take heed, said he, that no 
man deceive you. For many shall come in my 
name, saying, I am Christ ; and shall deceive 
many. 

This caution was far from being unne- 
cessary, because, though the disciples were 
to see their Master ascend into heaven, 
they might take occasion from the pro- 
phecy to think that he would appear again 
on earth, and, therefore, be in danger of se- 
duction by the false Christs that should 
arise. — And when ye shall hear of wars, and 
rumours of wars, see that ye he not troubled : 
for all these things must come to pass ; but the 
end is not yet. Before this nation and 
temple are destroyed, terrible wars will 
happen in the land : For nation shall rise 
against nation, and kingdom against king- 
dom : and there shall be famines, and pes- 
tilences, and earthquakes, in divers places, 
Matt. xxiv r . 7- 

These are the preludes of the important 
event, forerunners of the evils which shall 
befall this nation and people. At the same 
time you shall meet with hot persecutions ; 
walk therefore circumspectly, and arm 
yourselves both with patience and forti- 
tude, that ye may be able to perform your 
duty, through the whole course of these 
persecutions ; for ye shall be brought be- 
fore the great men of the earth for my 
sake. But when they shall lead you, and de- 
liver you up, take no thought beforehand what 
ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate ; but 
whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, 
that speak ye ; for it is not ye that speak, but 
the Holy Ghost, Mark xiii. 11. 

During this time of trouble and con- 
fusion, he told them, the perfidy of man- 
kind should be so great towards one an- 



JESUS CHRIST. 207 

other, that brother shall betray the brother 
to death, and the father the son ; and children 
shall rise up against their parents, and shall 
cause them to be put to death. The unbe- 
lieving Jews, and apostate Christians, shall 
commit the most enormous and inhuman 
crimes. It is, therefore, no wonder that 
the perfidy and wickedness of such pre- 
tended Christians should discourage many 
disciples, and greatly hinder the propaga- 
tion of the gospel. But he who lives by 
faith, during these persecutions, and is not 
led away by the seduction of false Chris- 
tians, shall escape that terrible destruc- 
tion, which, like a deluge, will overflow the 
land. 

And when Jerusalem shall be surrounded 
with armies, pagan armies, bearing in their 
standards the images of their gods, the 
abomination of desolation mentioned by the 
prophet Daniel; then let him who readeth 
the predictions of that prophet understand, 
that the end of the city and sanctuary, to- 
gether with the ceasing of sacrifices and 
oblations, there predicted, is come, and 
consequently the final period of the Jewish 
polity. 

Then let them which are in Judea flee to 
the mountains ; and let them which are in the 
midst of it depart out, Luke xxi. 21. Let 
him which is on the house-top not come down 
to take any thing out of his house; neither let 
him which is in the field return back to take 
his clothes, Matt. xxiv. 17, 18. Then shall 
be fulfilled the awful predictions of the pro- 
phet Daniel, and the dreadful judgments 
denounced against the impenitent and un- 
believing. 

In those days of vengeance, the women 
who are with child, and those who have 
infants hanoinir at their breasts, shall be 
particularly unhappy, because they cannot 
flee from the impending destruction. But 
pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, 

when 



208 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



when the badness of the roads, and the 
rigour of the season, will render speedy 
travelling very troublesome, if not impos- 
sible ; neither on the sabbath- day, when you 
shall think it unlawful. For then shall be 
great tribulation, such as was not since the 
beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever 
shall be. This is confirmed by what Jose- 
phus tells us, that no less than eleven hun- 
dred thousand perished in the siege. 

The heavenly Prophet added, that ex- 
cept the days of tribulation should be 
shortened, none of the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem and Judea, of whom he was speak- 
ing, should escape destruction : in confir- 
mation of which, Josephus tells us, that the 
quarrels which raged during the siege 
were so fierce and obstinate, that both 
within the walls of Jerusalem, and without 
in the neighbouring country, the whole 
land was one continued scene of horror 
and desolation ; and had the siege conti- 
nued much longer, the whole nation of 
the Jews had been totally destroyed, ac- 
cording to our Lord's prediction. But, 
added our blessed Saviour, for the elect's 
sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened 
the days. By the elect, are meant such of 
the Jews as had embraced the doctrines 
of the gospel, and particularly those who 
were brought in with the believing Gen- 
tiles. 

As it is natural, in time of trouble, to 
look with eager expectation for a deliverer, 
our blessed Saviour cautioned his disciples 
not to listen to any pretences of that kind, 
as many false Christs would arise, and de- 
ceive great numbers of the people. A 
prediction that was fully accomplished, 
during the terrible siege of Jerusalem by 
the Romans: so Josephus tells us, that 
many arose, pretending to be the Messiah, 
boasting that they would deliver the nation 
from all its enemies. And the multitude, 1 



always too prone to listen to deceivers, 
who promise temporal advantages, giving 
credit to those deceivers, became more ob- * 
stinate in their opposition to the Romans, 
and thereby rendered their destruction more 
severe and inevitable. 

And what still increased the infatuation 
of the people, was their performing won- 
derful things during the war ; and accord- 
ingly Josephus calls them magicians and 
sorcerers. Hence we see the propriety of 
the caution given by the Son of God, who 
foretold that they should shew great signs 
and wonders, insomuch that, if it were pos- 
sible, they would deceive the very elect. 
But take heed; behold, I have foretold you 
all things. 

And as the partizans of the false Christs 
might pretend that the Messiah was con- 
cealed a while for fear of the Romans, and 
the weaker sort of Christians, without this 
warning, have imagined that Christ was 
actually returned to deliver the nation in 
its extremity, and to punish their enemies, 
who now so cruelly oppressed them, and 
that he would shew himself as soon as it 
was proper, the blessed Jesus thought pro- 
per to caution them against this particular: 
Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Be- 
hold, he is in the desert ; go not forth : be- 
hold, he is in the secret chambers ; believe it 
not. For as the lightning cometh out of the 
east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall 
also the coming of the Son of man be, Matt, 
xxiv. 26, &c. 

The coming of the Son of man shall be 
like lightning, swift and destructive. But 
he will come, not personally ; his servants 
only shall come, the Roman armies, who, 
by his command, shall destroy this nation, 
as eagles devour their prey. 

Having thus given them a particular ac- 
count of the various circumstances which 
1 should precede the destruction of Jeru- 

salenij 



AND SAVIOUR, 

salem, he next described that catastrophe 
itself, in all the pomp of language and 
imagery made use of by the ancient pro- 
phets when they foretold the destruction 
of cities and kingdoms. But in those days, 
after that tribulation, the sun shall be dark- 
ened, and the moon shall not give her light ; 
and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the 
powers that are in heaven shall be shaken, 
Mark xiii. 24. 25. And upon the earth dis- 
tress of nations, with perplexity ; the sea and the 
naves roaring; mens hearts failing them for 
fear, and for looking after those things which 
are coming on the earth, Luke xxi. 25, &c. 

By these lofty and figurative expressions, 
the decaying of all the glory, excellency, 
and prosperit} r , of the nation, and the in- 
troduction of universal sadness, misery, and 
confusion, are beautifully described. The 
roaring of the sea, and the waves, may 
justly be considered as metaphorical; as 
the signs in the sun, in the moon, and in 
the stars, are plainly so ; and by the powers 
of heaven, are meant the w T hole Jewish 
polity, government, laws, and religion, 
which were the work of heaven : these, our 
Lord tells us, should be shaken, or rather 
dissolved. 

As the disciples had, in conformity to 
the repeated questions of the Pharisees, 
during his ministry, asked what should be 
the sign of his coming ? our blessed Sa- 
viour told them, that after the tribulation 
of those days, when the sun should be 
darkened, and all the enemies of the Mes- 
siah should mourn, they should see the ac- 
complishment of what Daniel foretold, 
by the figurative expression of the Son of 
man coming in the clouds of heaven, for 
they should behold the signal punishment 
executed on the Jewish nation by the Ro- 
man armies, sent for that purpose, and by 
the decree and permission of Heaven. — 
Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man 



JESUS CHRIST. 209 

in heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the 
earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man 
coming in the clouds of heaven, with power, 
and great glory, Matt. xxiv. 30. 

Then were the followers of Christ to be 
delivered from the oppression under which 
they had long groaned, and openly ho- 
noured before the whole earth : and on 
this may true believers rest; because it is 
founded on eternal truth. Verily, I say unto 
you, This generation shall not pass, till all 
these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth 
shall pass away, but my words shall not pass 
away, Matt. xxiv. 34, 35. 

Whoever shall compare the prediction 
of our Saviour with the history Josephus 
wrote of the war, cannot fail of being struck 
with the wisdom of Christ, and acknow- 
ledging that his prediction was truly divine : 
for as the Jewish nation was at this time in 
the most flourishing state, the event here 
foretold appeared altogether improbable. 
Besides, the circumstances of the destruc- 
tion are very numerous, and surprisingly 
great; and the whole delivered without any 
ambiguity. It is, therefore, a prophecy of 
such a kind, as could never have been 
uttered by any impostor, and consequently 
the person who delivered it was acquainted 
with the secret counsels of heaven, and 
was truly divine. 

Many cavillers against the Christian re- 
ligion have asked, why Christ should order 
his disciples not to flee from Jerusalem, 
till they saw it encompassed with the Ro- 
man army, when it would then be impos- 
sible for them to make their escape? But 
persons, before they propose such ques- 
tions, would do well to read attentively the 
history Josephus has given us of these ter- 
rible calamities; because they would there 
find a solution of the difficulty. That his- 
torian tells us, that Cestus Callus surround- 
ed the city with his army, and, at a time 

3 G when 



210 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



when be could easily have taken the city, 
suddenly withdrew his forces without any 
apparent reason. He adds, that as soon 
as the siege was raised, many eminent per- 
sons fled from it, as from a sinking ship. 
In all probability many of these were 
Christians, who, being warned by this pro- 
phecy of their great Master, saved them- 
selves by flight, as he had directed. Thus 
we see what frivolous objections are made 
by the freethinkers of our age against the 
truth of the sacred writings, and how easily 
they are answered. 

Having thus beautifully, but awfully, de- 
scribed this important and striking event, 
the blessed Jesus assured his disciples that 
it would be very unexpected, and thence 
urged the necessity of a watchful vigilance, 
lest they should be surprised, and have a 
share in those calamities. But as the days 
of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the 
Son of man be, Matt. xxiv. 37- Watch ye, 
therefore: (for ye know not when the master 
of the house cometh ; at even, or at midnight, 
or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning:) 
lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping, 
Mark xiii. 35, 36. 

It was natural, as men were to undergo, 
at the destruction of Jerusalem, nearly the 
same miseries, and as the passions which 
its approach would raise in their minds 
Avere similar to those which will happen at 
the destruction of the world, and the ge- 
neral judgment; it was natural, I say, for 
our blessed Saviour, on this occasion, to put 
his disciples in mind of that judgment, and 
to exhort them to the faithful discharge of 
their duty, from the consideration of the 
suddenness of his coming to call every in- 
dividual to account after death : Therefore 
be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye 
tliink not, the Son of man cometh. If ho then 
is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord 
hath made ruler over his household, to give 



them meat in due season ? Blessed is that 
servant, whom his lord, when he cometh, shall 
find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that he 
shall make him ruler over all his goods, Matt, 
xxiv. 44, &c. As if he had said, You, who 
are the ministers of religion, ought to be 
particularly attentive in discharging the 
important trust committed to your care ; 
you are the stewards, to whom is entrusted 
the whole household of the church : and 
you would do well to remember, that your 
example will have a great effect upon the 
minas of those employed under you. It 
is your duty to be well acquainted with 
the stores of evangelical truths, and to 
understand how they may be applied to 
the best advantage ; you should be also 
careful to know the characters of the 
different persons under your directions, 
that you may be able to give every one of 
them his portion of meat in due season : 
and if I find you thus employed at my 
coming, I will reward you with the joys of 
my kingdom, even as an earthly master 
bestows particular marks of respect on 
such servants as have been remarkably 
faithful in any important trust. 

But, on the other hand, if you are not 
true to the trust reposed in you ; if you 
pervert your office, and watch not over the 
souls committed to your care; I will come 
to j^ou, unexpectedly, and make you dread- 
ful examples of mine anger, by the se- 
vere punishments which I will inflict upon 
you. But and if that evil servant shall say 
in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming; 
and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and 
to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord oj 
that servant shall come in a day when he 
looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is 
not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and 
appoint him his portion with the hypocrites : 
there shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth, 
Matt. xxiv. 48, &c. 

Having 



AND SAVIOUR, 

Having thus generally described the fu- 
ture state of retribution, our Lord passed 
to the consideration of the general judg- 
ment, when those rewards and punish- 
ments should be distributed in their utmost 
extent. This could not fail of animating 
his disciples to a vigorous discharge of their 
duty; and by the striking representation 
of the last judgment he has here given, 
must greatly tend to rouse the consciences 
of men from their lethargy, and consider, 
before it be too late, the things which be- 
long to their peace. 

Then shall the kingdom of heaven, the 
gospel kingdom, in the last dispensation 
of it, when the kingdom of grace is going 
to be swallowed up in the kingdom of 
glory, be likened unto ten virgins, which took 
their lamps, and went forth to meet the bride- 
groom. And Jive of them were wise, and five 
were foolish. They that were foolish took 
their lamps, but put no oil in their ves- 
sels ; while the wise, as an instance of their 
prudence and foresight, took both their 
lamps, and oil in their vessels ; knowing 
that it was uncertain when the bridegroom 
would arrive, and that they might in all 
probability wait long for his coming. Nor 
were they mistaken : for the bridegroom 
did not come so soon as they expected. 
And while he tarried, they all slumbered and 
slept: and at midnight there was a great 
cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh ; go 
ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins 
arose, and trimmed their lamps: and the fool- 
ish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for 
our lamps are gone out. But the wise answer- 
ed, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for 
us and you; but go you rather to them that 
sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they 
went to buy, the bridegroom came ; and they 
that were ready went in with him to the mar- 
riage: and the door was shut. Afterwards 
came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, 



JESUS CHRIST. 211 

Lord, open to us. But he answered, and 
said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. 
Watch, therefore; for ye know neither the day 
nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh, 
Matt. xxv. 6, 7» &c. 

In order to understand this parable, we 
must remember that it alludes to the cus- 
tom of the eastern people. It was usual 
with them for the bridegroom to bring his 
bride home in the evening, sooner or later, 
as circumstances might happen ; and, that 
they might be received properly at his 
house, his female acquaintance, especially 
those of the younger sort, were invited to 
come and wait with lamps, till some of his 
retinue, dispatched before the rest, in- 
formed them that he was near at hand ; 
upon which they trimmed their lamps, 
went forth to welcome him, and conduct 
him, with his bride, into the house; for 
which they were honoured as guests at the 
marriage feast, and shared in the usual fes- 
tivities. 

To ten such virgins our blessed Saviour 
compares those to whom the gospel is 
preached ; because this was the general 
number appointed to wait on the bride- 
groom: and to these all Christian profes- 
sors may be likened, who, taking their lamp 
of Christian profession, go forth to meet 
the bridegroom; that is, consider them- 
selves as candidates for the kingdom of 
heaven, and desire to be admitted with 
Christ, the celestial bridegroom, into the 
happy mansions of immortality. 

We must remember, that there always 
was, and always will be, a mixture of good 
and bad in the church, till the great day 
of separation arrives. The weakness of 
the foolish is represented by their taking 
no oil in their vessels, with their lamps ; 
that is, the foolish professors content them- 
selves with the bare lamp of a profession, 
and never think of furnishing it with the 



212 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



oil of divine grace, the fruit of which is a 
life of holiness. Whereas, the wise, well 
knowing that a lamp, without the supply 
of oil, would be speedily extinguished ; that 
faith without love, or holiness, will be of 
no consequence; take care to secure a sup- 
ply for themselves of the divine grace, and 
to display in their lives the works of love 
and charity. While all those virgins, though 
differently supplied, waiting the coming of 
the bridegroom, all slumbered and slept; 
that is, as some think, all Christians, both 
good and bad, the sincere and the hypo- 
crite, lie down together in the sleep of 
death, and while the bridegroom delays his 
comins;, slumber in the chambers of the dust. 
But others suppose, that this argues the 
want of vigilance and care, even in the wise 
as well as the foolish ; that few, if any, are 
so attentive as they ought to be, to the com- 
ing of their Lord. 

The Jews have a tradition, that Christ's 
coming to judgment will be at midnight; 
which agrees with that particular, in the 
parable, At midnight there was a cry made, 
Go ye out to meet Mm. But however this 
be, whether he will come at midnight, or 
in the morning;, it will be awfully sudden 
and alarming. The great cry will be heard 
to the end of the earth ; the trumpet shall 
sound, and the mighty archangel's voice 
pierce even the bowels of the earth, and 
the depths of the ocean : Behold, the bride- 
groom cometh ; go ye out to meet him. 

The graves, both earthly and watery, 
must surrender their clayey tenants, and 
all will then begin to think how they may 
prepare themselves to find admittance to 
the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then 
all those virgins arose, and trimmed their 
lamps. But the foolish soon perceived their 
folly; their lamps were gone out, totally ex- 
tinguished, and they had no oil to support 
the flame: in like manner the hypocrite's 



hope shall perish. But the wise were in a 
much happier condition ; they had oil in 
their vessels sufficient for themselves, but 
none to spare; for, when the foolish virgins 
would have procured some from them, they 
denied their request, fearing there would 
not be enough for both. 

There are here beautifully represented, 
nominal and sincere Christians. The for- 
mer, having only the bare lamp of a pro- 
fession, and who have not been solicitous 
to gain the oil of divine grace, by a con- 
stant use of the means assigned, will fare 
like the foolish virgins. While the latter, 
whose hearts are filled with divine oil, will, 
like the wise virgins, enter into the joy of 
their Lord. 

But the foolish, going to purchase oil, 
missed the bridegroom, and, behold, the 
door was shut. They at last, however, 
reached the gate, and with great impor- 
tunity cried, Lord, Lord, open unto as. 
But he answered, and said, Verily I say 
unto you, I know you not. As you denied 
me on earth, I deny you now: Depart 
from me; I know yon not! How justly 
therefore did our blessed Saviour bid us 
all natch, that we may be found ready- 
whenever he cometh ; or commands, by 
the kino- of terrors, our attendance before 
his judgment seat. Let us not refuse this 
kind invitation of being constantly pre- 
pared to meet the heavenly Bridegroom ; 
let us get our lamps filled with oil, that 
we may be ready to follow our great Mas- 
ter into the happy mansions of the hea- 
venly Canaan. 

But, as this duty was of the utmost im- 
portance, our blessed Saviour, to shew us 
more clearly the nature and use of Chris- 
tian watchfulness, to which he exhorts us 
at the conclusion of the parable of the ten 
virgins, he added another, wherein he re- 
presented the different characters of a 

faithful 



AND SAVIOUR, 

faithful and slothful servant, and the dif- 
ference of their future acceptation. 

This parable, like the former, is intended 
to stir us up to a zealous preparation for 
the coming of our Lord, by diligence in 
the discharge of our duty, and by a care- 
ful improvement of our souls in holiness ; 
and at the same time to expose the vain 
pretences of hypocrites, and to demon- 
strate that their fair speeches and outward 
forms, without the power of godliness, will 
bfi of no service whatever in the last day 
of account. 

The Son of man, said he, may, with re- 
spect to his final coming to judge the world, 
be likened unto a man travelling into a far 
country, who called his own servants, and de- 
livered unto them his goods. And unto one he 
gave Jive talents, to another two, and to another 
one ; to every man according to his several 
ability: and straightway took his journey , Matt, 
xxv. 14, 15. 

Immediately on his master's departure, 
he that had received the five talents lost no 
time, but went and traded with the same, 
and his increase was equal to his industry 
and application; he made them other five 
talents. He that had received two talents 
did the same, and had equal success. But 
he that received one, very unlike the con- 
duct of his fellow-servants, went his way, 
digged in the earth, and hid his lord's 
money, idle, useless, unemployed, and un- 
improved. 

After a long time, and at an hour when 
they did not expect it, the lord of those 
servants returned, called them before him, 
and ordered them to give an account of 
their several trusts. Upon which, he that 
had received five talents, as a proof of his 
fidelity, produced other five talents, saj^ing, 
Lord, thou deliveredst unto me Jive talents : 
behold, I have gained besides them Jive talents 
more, Matt. xxv. 20. His lord, highly 



JESUS CHRIST. 213 

applauding his industry and fidelity, said 
to him, B ell done, thou good and faithful 
servant; thou Jms't been faithful over a few 
things, I will make thee ruler over many 
things : enter thou into the joy of thy lord, ' 
Matt. xxv. 21. 

In like manner also, he that had re- 
ceived two talents declared he had trained 
two other; upon which he was honoured 
with the same applause, and admitted into 
the same joy with his fellow-servant : their 
master having regard to the industry and 
fidelity of his servants; not to the number 
of the talents only, but the greatness of their 
increase. 

After this, he that had received the one 
talent came, and, with a shameful false- 
hood, to excuse his vile indolence, said, 
Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, 
reaping where thou hast not sown, and gather- 
ing where thou hast not strawed: and I was 
afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the 
earth ; lo, there thou hast that is thine, Matt, 
xxv. 24, 25. 

The perversion of even the smallest por- 
tion of grace greatly excited the resent- 
ment of his lord, who answered, Thou 
wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that 
I reap where I sowed not, and gather where L 
have not strawed; thou oughtest, therefore, to 
have put my money to the exchangers, and then, 
at my coming, I should have received mine own 
with usury. Take, therefore, the talent from 
him, and give it unto him which hath ten 
talents. For unto every one that hath shall 
be given, and he shall have abundance ; but 
from him that hath not, shall be taken away 
even that which he hath. And cast ye the un- 
profitable servant into outer darkness : there 
shall be weeping, and gnashing oj teeth, Matt, 
xxv. 26, &c. 

Such is the parable of the talents, as de- 
livered by our blessed Saviour ; a parable 
containing the measures of our duty to 

3 H God, 



214 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



God, and the motives that enforce it, all 
delivered in the plainest and simplest man- 
ner. But its views are so extensive and 
affecting, that while it instructs the mean- 
est capacity, it engages reverence and at- 
tention from the greatest, and strikes an 
impression on the most improved under- 
standing-. We are to consider God as our 
Lord and Master, the author and giver of 
every good gift, and ourselves as his ser- 
vants or stewards, who, in various instan- 
ces and measures, have received from his 
goodness such blessings and abilities, as 
may fit us for the several stations and offices 
of life to which his providence appoints us. 
But then we are to observe, that these are 
committed to us as a trust or loan, for 
whose due management we are account- 
able to the donor. 

If we faithfully acquit ourselves of this 
probationary charge, we shall receive far 
oreater instances of God's regard and fa- 
vour; but if we are remiss and negligent, 
we must expect to feel his resentment and 
displeasure. 

A time will come, and how near it may 
be none of us can tell, when our great 
Master will demand a particular account 
of every talent he hath committed to our 
care. This time may, indeed, be at a dis- 
tance; for it is uncertain when the king 
of terrors will receive the awful warrant to 
terminate our existence here below : yet it 
will certainly come, and our eternal happi- 
ness or misery depends upon it; so that we 
should have it continually in our thoughts, 
and engraven, as with the point of a dia- 
mond, on the tables of our hearts. 

We learn, from this instructive parable, 
that infinite Wisdom hath intrusted men 
with different talents, and adjusted them 
to the various purposes of human life. But 
though the gifts of men are unequal, none 
can, with justice, complain ; since what- 



ever is bestowed, be it more or less, is a 
favour entirely unmerited. 

Each then should be thankful, and satis- 
fied with his portion; and, instead of en- 
vying the more liberal endowments of 
others, apply himself to the improvement 
of his own. And it should be attentively 
observed, that the difficulty of the task is 
in proportion to the number of talents 
committed to each. He who had received 
five was to gain other five ; and he who 
had received two, was to account for other 
two. 

Surely then we have no reason to com- 
plain if our Master has laid on us a lighter 
burden, a more easy and less service, than 
what he has on others. Especially as our 
interest in the favour of the Almighty does 
not depend on the number of our talents, 
but on our diligence and application in the 
management of them : so that the moral 
design of this parable is, to engage our 
utmost attention to improve such talents as 
our heavenly Father has thought proper to 
bestow upon us. 

By these talents are principally meant, 
the communication and graces of the Holy 
Spirit, which God bestows in different 
measures, dividing to every man severally as 
lie will. And subordinate to these are all 
the means, opportunities, and abilities, 
which men have to exercise or improve 
their graces; all the advantages of station, 
fortune, education, and whatever may en- 
able us to do good ; for we having re- 
ceived all we enjoy from God, are strictly 
obliged to promote the wise ends for which 
he bestows his favours. And here let us 
take a short and imperfect view of what 
God has done for us. I He has given us 
reason and understanding; to discern good 
from evil, and inquire into the causes, re- 
lations, and consequences of things, to col- 
lect from them proper rules of judgment 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



215 



and action. Indeed, since the fall, this 
faculty has been much obscured ; but still 
it remains an universal gift of God to men, 
and though not equal in all, yet it is given 
to every man in such measure as is suffi- 
cient for their direction. In the know- 
ledge of our duty, and the pursuit of our 
happiness, God has, by the gospel, so gra- 
ciously supplied the defect of reason, that 
the weakest understanding, enlightened by 
grace, may know how to be happy; such 
assistances of divine grace attend every 
Christian, if he will apply to God for them, 
as may enable him to direct his inclina- 
tions, govern his passions, and subdue his 
corrupt affections. These talents are in 
some degree common to all men ; and by 
the improvement of that grace which is 
conferred on every one, all may have suffi- 
cient to conduct them through the several 
stages of life, if they will use but proper 
diligence and application. But regard 
must be had to all the means for cultivat- 
ing those gifts of nature and grace, such 
as all opportunities of instruction, the mi- 
nistry and ordinances of religion, the re- 
proofs and examples of good men, the 
occasions offered and the abilities given 
for the exercise of religion. All these are 
talents, or gifts of God, deposited with us 
to be diligently made use of, and for which 
we are accountable to him. 

We shall therefore proceed to shew what 
duty is required from us, in the improve- 
ment of these talents. It is here supposed, 
that these talents are improveable, or other- 
wise they would be of no use or value ; 
and indeed we are bound, by the com- 
mand of God, who has threatened to inflict 
severe penalties if we neglect it, to im- 
prove them. And if they are not im- 
proved, they will not continue long with us, 
but be lost; the finest parts and capacities, 
without proper culture, will make but a 



mean and contemptible figure. No know- 
ledge can be preserved without use and 
exercise, and the same holds with regard 
to moral accomplishments. It requires 
great care and attention to form a religious 
habit, but much more to preserve it in its 
vigour. Unless we co-operate with the 
motions of God's grace, and cultivate it by 
use and application, its impressions will 
gradually wear out, and be lost. The Spirit 
of God will not always strive with man. He 
gives us a talent to manage, equal to the 
service he expects from us; but if we are 
slothful and negligent, and will not apply 
it to the purposes for which it was given, 
he will recall the useless gift. Take from 
him, says he, the talent, and give it to him 
that hath ten talents. Let us, therefore, 
diligently improve every talent committed 
to us, because this will be required of us 
in the day of accounts. Happy the man 
who has improved his talents on earth ! 
What this improvement implies, and how 
we may discharge this duty, is an inquiry 
of the nearest concern to us. The proper 
improvement of all God's gifts, is the em- 
ploying them so as may best promote his 
glory. 

This is the end the Almighty has pro- 
posed in our creation; in all the powers 
he hath endued us with, and in all the aids 
of grace he has vouchsafed us. What- 
ever other improvements we make of them 
will not profit us, nor be admitted as any 
proof of our fidelity, in the day of reckon- 
ing. We may cultivate our understanding 
by learning and study, and extend our 
knowledge through all the subjects of hu- 
man inquiry ; but if our end be only to 
gratify our curiosity or our vanity, we are 
not serving God, but ourselves: we may 
increase our portion of God's outward 
gifts; but if we only apply them to enlarge 
our own conveniences, we are not making 

the 



216 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



the improvements our Master expects : we 
may take pleasure in our knowledge and 
wealth, rejoice in them as our portion and 
instrument in our present situation ; but 
we must still remember, that in our reckon- 
ing with God, all these improvements of 
our capacities and abilities will be added 
to our account. And the only use God 
will admit us to set in balance of our debt 
to him, is to employ them as means of in- 
creasing and multiplying our graces, or as 
instruments of exercising them in the work 

CD 

of piety and religion. 

From hence we may infer, that there 
will be degrees of future glory and happi- 
ness, proportioned to our eminence in the 
divine life, and the service we have done 
to the cause of Christ. 

Dreadful will be his case, who has 
squandered away the talent itself ; suffered 
his gifts to perish for want of use ; or, by 
abusing them to the service of sin, has 
provoked the Almighty to take them from 
him. 

How shall the prodigal recall the pro- 
perty he has spent, and appease the anger 
of his Judge! The terrors of the Lord may 
justly affright him ; but it should not ex- 
tinguish his endeavours in despair. He 
has lost many excellent talents ; but he 
who gave can restore. Indeed, the most 
circumspect person wants much to be for- 
given; and must expect his reward from 
the mercy of his Judge, not from the merit 
of his service. Let us then do all in our 
power to bring forth fruits meet for repent- 
ance. For though the awful day of the 
Lord may be at a great distance, yet the 
time allotted to us to prepare for it is limited 
by the short space of human life. The 
night of death cometh, when no man can 
work. To-day, therefore, while it is called 
to-day, let us be diligent in the work of 
the Lord, correct our errors, and put away 



all evil, and finish our course well, that we 
may obtain his approbation, and make our 
calling and election sure. 

We shall now proceed to the third para- 
ble, or rather description, delivered at the 
same time by the blessed Jesus, namely, 
that of the last judgment. When the Son of 
man, said he, shall come in his glory, and 
all the holy angels with Mm, then shall he sit 
upon the throne of his glory. And before him 
shall he gathered all nations; and he shall 
separate them one from another, as a shep- 
herd divideth his sheep from the goats : and 
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, hut 
the goats on the left, Matt. xxv. 31, &c. It 
is common in the Old Testament, to com- 
pare good men to sheep, on account of 
their innocence and usefulness; and wicked 
men to goats, for their exorbitant lusts. 
Our blessed Saviour, however, does not 
pursue the allegory farther, but describes 
the remaining, and indeed the greatest part 
of this awful scene, in terms perfectly sim- 
ple ; so that though the sense be profound, 
it is obvious. 

Here the judgment of all nations, Gen- 
tiles as well as Christians, is exhibited ; 
and the particulars on which these awful 
trials are to proceed, displayed by the great 
Judge himself. 

Here we learn, that we shall be con- 
demned or acquitted according as we have 
neglected or performed works of charity; 
works which flow from the great principles 
of faith and love, and which the very Hea- 
thens are, by the light of reason and aid of 
grace, invited to perform. But we must 
not understand that such works merited 
this favour from the Judge; no, all who are 
acquitted at that day, whether Heathens 
or Christians, shall be acquitted solely on 
account of the life and death of Christ, the 
true, the only, meritorious cause. 

Good men can at best but consider their 

present 



AND SAVIOUR, 

present state as an absence from their na- 
tive country. A state in which they are 
often exposed to innumerable temptations, 
to persecutions, to poverty, to reproach, to 
contempt. But a proper consideration, 
that they are travelling towards the heavenly 
Jerusalem, a city prepared for them when 
the foundations of the world were laid, will 
be abundantly sufficient to support their 
spirits, and render them more than con- 
querors. The glory laid up for them in the 
mansions of eternity, and which the great 
Judge will, at the awful day of accounts, 
confer upon them, will animate them to 
bear the violence of their oppressors, and 
even defy the malice of men and devils. 
Nay, they will behold without envy the 
flourishing prosperity of the wicked, and 
look forward to that glorious and immortal 
crown, which will be given to the righteous 
by their great Redeemer. Then shall the 
King say unto them on his right hand, Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- 
dom prepared for you from the foundation 
of the world. For I was an hung fed, and 
ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave 
me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me 
in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and 
ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came 
unto me, Matt. xxv. 34, &c. 

These enraptured and amazed souls shall 
then ask, with great reverence and humi- 
lity, when they performed these services? 
as they never saw him in want, and there- 
fore could not assist him. Lord, when saw 
we thee an hungred, and fed thee ? or thirsty, 
and gave thee drink? when saw we thee a 
stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and 
clothed thee ? or when saw we thee sick, or in 
prison, and came unto thee ? And the King 
shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say 
unto you, In as much as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me, Matt. xxv. 37, &c. This 



JESUS CHRIST. 217 

is truly astonishing ! The united wisdom 
of men and angels could never have dis- 
covered a more proper method to convey 
an idea of the warmth and force of the 
divine benevolence to the sons of men, or 
offer a more forcible motive to charity, than 
that the Son of God should, from his seat 
of judgment, in presence of the whole race 
of mankind, and all the hosts of the blessed 
spirits from the courts of heaven, declare 
that all o;ood offices done to the afflicted for 
his sake, are done to himself. 

During the time of his dwelling with 
human nature in this vale of tears, he suf- 
fered unspeakable injuries and afflictions ; 
and, therefore, he considers all the righ- 
teous who are distressed as members of his 
body, loves them with the utmost tender- 
ness, and is so greatly interested in their 
welfare, that he rejoices when they are 
happy, and, humanly speaking, grieves 
when they are distressed. 

Perhaps the true reason why the grand 
inquiry shall rest solely on the performance 
of duties, is, that men, generally speaking- 
consider the neglect of duties as a matter 
of no great consequence, but dread the 
commission of crimes. And hence it hap- 
pens, that while they keep themselves free 
from the latter, they easily find excuses for 
the former. And as there is not a more 
pernicious error, with regard to religion 
and morality, than this, the blessed Jesus 
thought proper to give such an account of 
the judgment, as should prove the most 
solemn caution against it. 

But as the inquiry turns wholly on the 
performance of the duties of charity, it 
has been asked, why these duties only are 
mentioned, and no notice taken of the du- 
ties of piety ; though the Judge himself, 
upon another occasion, declared these to 
be of more importance than the duties of 
charity, so highly applauded in this de- 

3 I scription 



218 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



scription of the last day ? But those who 
ask this question would do well to remem- 
ber, that piety and Christian charity cannot 
subsist separately : piety, and its origin, 
faith, always producing charity ; and cha- 
rity, wherever it subsists, necessarily pre- 
supposing piety. 

The connection between piety and ge- 
nuine charity will evidently appear, if it 
be considered, that no man can be truly 
benevolent and merciful, without loving 
those dispositions. Consequently, he must 
love benevolence in God, that is, he must 
love God ; for piety, or the love of God, 
is nothing else but the regard we cherish 
towards God, on account of his benefits 
and perfections. 

Piety and charity being thus essentially 
connected together, it is abundantly suffi- 
cient to examine the conduct of men, with 
regard to either of those graces. In the 
above description, the inquiry is repre- 
sented as turning upon the duties of cha- 
rity, perhaps, because in this branch of 
goodness there is less room for self-deceit 
than in the other. It is common for hy- 
pocrites, by a pretended zeal in the exter- 
nals of religion, to make specious pretences 
to extraordinary piety, and at the same 
time are totally deficient in charity ; are 
covetous, unjust, rapacious, and proud, and 
consequently destitute of all love to their 
Creator. But none can assume the ap- 
pearance of charity, but by feeding the 
hungry, clothing the naked, relieving the 
distressed, and performing other benevo- 
lent offices to their brethren. 

The works of charity in alms-giving may 
indeed, in some particular cases, flow 
from other principles than those of pious 
and benevolent dispositions, as from vanity, 
or even views of interest; but then it should 
be remembered, that a common degree of 
hypocrisy will hardly engage men to un- 



dertake them ; they are by far too weighty 
duties to be sustained by those false prin- 
ciples, and therefore are seldom counter- 
feited. Consequently, wherever a genuine, 
extensive, and permanent charity is found, 
we may hope that there the love of God 
reigns in reality. 

Hence we learn, that all pretences to 
goodness, without a principle of grace 
wrought in the heart, avails nothing in 
point of eternal salvation. At the same 
time, if we consider it in its full light, it 
will give us no reason to think well of our- 
selves, if we are wanting in our duty to 
God ; and that we should not only be cha- 
ritable, but grateful also, just, temperate, 
and blameless in all our dealings with man- 
kind. For we should remember, that the 
duty we owe to the Almighty is no way in- 
consistent with what is due to men, and 
which it would be unjust in us to neglect. 
It consists in dispositions and actions, the 
same in kind, but different in degree, pro- 
portionate to the perfection of the object. 

He who from right motives loves and 
admires holiness, justice, and truth, in men, 
cannot but love those perfections in God, 
that is, he must love God; so, likewise, he 
that is truly grateful from a right princi- 
ple, to any earthly benefactor, cannot be 
ungrateful to one from whose bounty he 
receives all the good things he enjoys: and 
since ingratitude in men is nothing more 
than forgetting the benefit received, and 
the benefactor who conferred the favour ; 
how can we acquit ourselves from the 
charge of ingratitude to God, if we forget 
the obligations we lie under to him, and 
are at no pains to return him thanks ; that 
is, if we wholly neglect the external and 
internal exercises of devotion. 

Since, therefore, the duty we owe to 
God is the same in kind with that we owe 
to man, where there is any resemblance of 

circum- 



AND SAVIOUR, 

circumstances, it will undeniably follow, 
that true morality can never exist where 
piety is wanting; and that those who pre- 
tend to morality, and are destitute of piety, 
render themselves ridiculous. 

The awful Judge himself has told us, 
that after he has passed the happy sentence 
on the righteous, he will pronounce the 
following sentence of condemnation upon 
the wicked : Depart from me, ye cursed, 
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
and his angels. For I was an hungred, and 
ye gave me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye 
gave me no drink : I was a stranger, and ye 
took me not in : naked, and ye clothed me 
not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me 
not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, 
Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or 
athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in 
prison, and did not minister unto thee ? Then 
shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say 
unto you, In as much as ye did it not to one 
of the least of these, ye did it not to me, 
Matt. xxv. 41, &c. 

It is remarkable, that our blessed Sa- 
viour has told us, that the fire of hell was 
not prepared for the wicked, but for the 
devil and his angels : but that the king- 
dom of heaven was prepared for the righ- 
teous. Perhaps he intended to teach us, 
that the original design of Omnipotence 
was to render man happy, not miserable : 
a state of consummate felicity was formed 
for the human race, at the time they were 
created ; but the fire of hell was prepared 
for the devil and his angels immediately 
after their fall. And as wicked men join 
with devils in their sin of rebellion against 
the Almighty, they are doomed to share 
with them in their punishment : a punish- 
ment of the heaviest kind; a punishment 
of devils. 

After having represented the sentences 
that are to be passed on the righteous and 

o 



JESUS CHRIST. 219 

the wicked, our Saviour closed the parable 
in the following manner : And these shall 
go azvay into everlasting punishment ; but the 
righteous into life eternal, Matt. xxv. 46. 

Let us now behold, with an attentive 
eye and a solicitous heart, the end of all the 
living; that awful scene, in which the va- 
rious dispensations of God to mankind 
shall terminate in the solemn day, when the 
Son of man shall come in his glory, and sit on 
his magnificent throne. All nations and 
people shall be assembled before him, and 
we must make a part of that assembly. 
The sheep and the goats must then be sepa- 
rated: and, O my soul, amongst which wilt 
thou then be numbered ? Is there an in- 
quiry, is there a care, of greater, of equal, of 
comparable importance? 

CHAP. XXXI. 

Our blessed Lord is anointed by a poor, but 
pious Woman. — The perfidious Judas con- 
sents to betray his Master. — The humble 
Jesus washes the Feet of his Disciples, and 
foretells that Disciple who was to betray him 
into the Hands of his inveterate Fnemies. 

HflHE blessed Jesus used frequently to 
-™- retire, in the evening, from the city 
to the Mount of Olives, and there spend 
the night, either in some village or the 
gardens, either to avoid falling into the 
hands of his enemies, or for the sake of a 
little retirement. They did not, indeed, 
presume to attack him, while he was sur- 
rounded by his followers, in the day-time; 
but, in all probability, had he lodged within 
the city, they would have apprehended 
him during the darkness and silence of the 
night. 

When our blessed Saviour had finished 
these parables, he added a short account 
of his own death, in order to fortify his 

disciples 



220 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



disciples against a greater trial than they 
had yet met with; namely, the sufferings 
of their Master. And it came to pass , when 
Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said 
unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days 
is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man 
is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled 
together the chief priests, and the scribes, and 
the elders of the people, unto the palace of the 
high-priest, who was called Caiaphas. And 
consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, 
and kill him. But they said, Not on the feast- 
day^ lest there be an uproar among the people, 
Matt. xxvi. 1, &c. 

When the evening approached, our 
blessed Saviour, w ith his disciples, repaired 
to Bethany, and entered the house of Si- 
mon the leper, probably one who expe- 
rienced the healing efficacy of his power. 
But while he sat at meat, a woman, who 
had also, doubtless, been an object of his 
mercy, poured a box of precious ointment 
upon his head. 

This action displeased his disciples, who 
knew that their Master was not delighted 
with luxuries of any kind ; and therefore 
they rebuked the woman, imagining that 
it would have been more acceptable to 
the Son of God, if the ointment had been 
sold, and the money distributed among 
the sons and daughters of poverty and 
affliction. 

To reprove the disciples, Jesus told 
them, that it had pleased the divine Pro- 
vidence to order that there should always 
be persons in necessitous circumstances, 
that the righteous might never want occa- 
sions for exercising their charity; but that 
those who did not now testify their love to 
him, would never more have the oppor- 
tunity of doing it, as the time of his mi- 
nistry was near its period, when the king 
of terrors should enjoy a short triumph 
over his body; and therefore this woman 



had seasonably anointed him for his bu- 
rial. And to make them sensible of theii 
folly, in blaming the woman for this her 
expression of love to him, he assured 
them, that she should be highly esteemed 
for this action in every part of the world, 
and her memory live to the latest period of 
time. 

Judas Iscariot, (one of the twelve, hav- 
ing been more forward than the rest in 
condemning the woman, thought the re- 
buke was particularly directed to him,) 
stung with the guilt of his own conscience, 
arose from the table, and went imme- 
diately into the city, to the high-priest's 
palace, where he found the whole council 
assembled. His passion would not suffer 
him to reflect on the horrid deed he was 
going to commit : he immediately pro- 
mised, for the reward of thirty pieces of 
silver, to betray into their hands his Lord 
and Master. 

Having thus eno;a2;ed with the rulers of 
Israel, to put into their hands a person 
who had been long labouring- for their sal- 
vation, who had often invited them, in the 
most pathetic manner, to embrace the be- 
nevolent terms of the gospel, offered by 
the Almighty, he sought an opportunit} 7 
to betray him in the absence of the mul- 
titude. 

Our Lord, who well knew that the time 
of his suffering drew nigh, desired, there- 
fore, to celebrate the passover with his dis- 
ciples. He was now going to finish the 
mighty work for which he came into the 
world ; and therefore would not neglect 
to fulfil the smallest particular of the law 
of Moses. He, therefore, sent two of his 
disciples into the city to prepare a lamb, 
and make it ready, for eating the passover ; 
telling them that they should meet a man, 
bearing a pitcher of water, who would 
conduct them to his house, and shew them 

a large 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



221 



a large upper room furnished, where they 
were to make ready for him. He was 
willing, in this last transaction, to convince 
his disciples, that he knew every thing that 
should befall him ; that his sufferings were 
all foretold by the Almighty; and that they 
were all, on his own account, submitted 
unto voluntarily. 

When night approached, Jesus left Be- 
thany ; and every thing being ready for 
him at the time he entered into the city, 
he sat down at the appointed hour. But 
knowing: that his sufferings were now near, 
he told his disciples, in the most affection- 
ate manner, that he had greatly longed to 
eat the passover with them before he suf- 
fered, in order to shew them the strongest 
proofs of his love. These proofs were, to 
give them a pattern of humility and love, 
by washing their feet ; instructing them in 
the nature of his death, and a propitiatory 
sacrifice ; instituting the sacrament, in 
commemoration of his sufferings ; com- 
forting them by the tender discourses re- 
corded, John xiv. xv. xvi. in which he 
gave them a variety of excellent directions, 
together with many gracious promises; and 
recommending them to the kind protection 
of his heavenly Father. With desire I have 
desired to eat this passover with you before 
I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any 
more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the 
kingdom of God. 

Having thus spoken, he arose from the 
table, laid aside his garments like a ser- 
vant, and with all the offlciousness of a 
humble minister, washed the feet of his 
disciples, without distinction, though one 
of them, Judas Iscariot, was a monster of 
impiety ; that they might at once behold 
a conjunction of love and humility, of self- 
denial and indifference, represented by a 
person glorious beyond expression, their 
great Lord and Master. 



He washed their feet, (according to a 
custom which prevailed in those hot coun- 
tries, both before and after meat,) in order 
to shew them an example of the utmost hu- 
mility and condescension. 

The omnipotent Son of the Father lays 
ever}'" thing aside, that he may serve his 
followers ; heaven stoops to earth, one 
abyss calls upon another, and the miseries 
of man, which were almost infinite, are 
exceeded by a mercy equal to the immen- 
sity of the Almighty* He deferred this 
ceremony, which was a customary civility 
paid to honourable strangers at the begin- 
ning of their feast, that it might be prepa- 
ratory to the second, which he intended 
should be a feast to the whole world, 
when all the followers of the blessed Jesus 
should have an opportunity, in a spiritual 
manner, of feeding on his flesh, and drink- 
ing his blood. 

When our blessed Saviour came to Peter, 
he modestly declined it; but his Master 
told him, if he refused to submit implicitly 
to all his orders, he could have no part 
with him. On which Peter cried out, 
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands 
and my head. But Jesus told him that the 
person who was washed had no reason to 
wash any part of the body except his feet, 
which he might have dirtied by walking 
from the bath. And added, Ye are all 
clean, as to the outward laver, but not as 
to the inward and spiritual laver; I well 
know that one of you will betray me. 

When our gracious Lord had finished 
this menial service, he asked his disciples, 
if they knew the meaning of what he had 
done, as the action was purely emblema- 
tical? You truly, added he, style me Mas- 
ter and Lord, for I am the Son of God and 
the Saviour of the world. But if I, your 
Master and your Lord, have condescended 
to wash your feet, you surely ought to per- 

3 K form 



222 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



form, with the utmost pleasure, the hum- 
blest offices of love one to another. I have 
set you a pattern of humility, and I recom- 
mend it to you. 

And certainly nothing can more effec- 
tually shew us the necessity of this hea- 
venly temper of mind, than its being re- 
commended to us by so great an example ; 
a recommendation which, in the present 
circumstances, was particularly seasonable ; 
for their disciples having heard their great 
Master declare that the kingdom of hea- 
ven was at hand, their minds were filled 
with ambitious thoughts. And therefore 
our blessed Saviour added, Ye need not 
be ashamed to follow my example in this 
particular; for no servant can think it 
beneath him to condescend to perform 
those actions his Lord had done before 
him. And therefore if he knows his duty, 
he will be happy if he practises it. He 
moreover added, that though he had called 
them all to the apostleship, and well knew 
the secret dispositions of every heart before 
he chose them, they need not be surprised 
that one among them should prove a 
traitor, as thereby the scripture would be 
fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me, hath 
lift up his heel against me. 

As our blessed Saviour was now to be 
but a short time with his disciples, he 
thought proper to take his farewell of them, 
which he did in a most affectionate manner. 
These melancholy tidings greatly troubled 
them. They were unwilling to part with 
so kind a friend, so dear a master, so wise 
a guide, and so profitable a teacher ; espe- 
cially, as they thought they should be left 
in a forlorn condition, a poor and helpless 
prey to the rage and hatred of a blind and 
malicious generation. They seem will- 
ing to die with their Lord, if that might 
be accepted. Why cannot I follow thee ? 
I will lay down my life for thee ! was the 



language of one, and even all of them ; 
but they could not support the thoughts of 
a disconsolate separation. 

Their great and compassionate Master, 
seeing them thus dejected, endeavoured to 
cheer their drooping spirits : Let not your 
hearts he troubled. Listen attentively to 
what I am going to deliver for your con- 
solation : I am going to prepare a place for 
you; I will come again, and receive you to 
myself that where I am, there you may be 
also. A reviving word of promise. They 
were one day to meet again their dear, their 
affectionate Master, in a place where they 
should live together to eternity. 

But death makes so vast a distance be- 
tween friends, and the disciples then knew 
so little of a future state, that they seemed 
to doubt whether they should, after their 
parting, meet their great Redeemer. They 
neither knew the place where he was going, 
nor the way that led to his kingdom : 
Lord, said they, as we know not whither 
thou goest, how can we know the way ? In 
answer to this question, he told them that 
he was the way, the truth, and the life : as if 
he had said, Through the propitiatory sa- 
crifice I am about to offer, the sacred 
truths I have delivered, and the divine as- 
sistance which I shall hereafter dispense, 
you are to obtain that happiness which I 
go to prepare for you. 

But lest all these arguments should not 
be sufficient to quiet their minds, he had 
still another, which could not fail of suc- 
cess : If ye love me, says he, ye will rejoice 
because I said, I go to the Father. Intimat- 
ing, that he would consider it as a proof of 
their love to him, if they ceased to mourn. 
They doubtless thought, that by grieving 
for his death, they expressed their love to 
their Master; and it might seem strange 
that our Saviour should put so contrary an 
interpretation on their friendly sorrow, or 

require 



AND SAVIOUR, 

require so unnatural a thing of them, as to 
rejoice at his departure. What ! (might 
they think,) shall we rejoice at so amiable 
a friend's removal from us ? or can we be 
glad that he retires, and leaves us in this 
vale of misery ? No, it is impossible ; the 
human heart, on so melancholy an occa- 
sion, can have no disposition to rejoice. 

Our blessed Saviour, therefore, adds this 
reason to solve the seeming paradox ; be- 
cause he was going to his Father : that is, he 
was going to ascend to the right hand of 
infinite Power, from whence he would send 
them all the assistance they could desire. 
It must not, however, be supposed, that he 
meant by these words, that his disciples 
should not be concerned at his death, or 
that they could not love him unless they 
expressed a visible joy on this occasion. 
That would, indeed, have been a hard in- 
terpretation of their grief : he knew their 
grief flowed from love ; and that if their 
love had not been strong, their sorrow had 
been much less. Indeed, their Master was 
fully convinced that love was the occasion 
of their sorrow ; and therefore he used 
these arguments to mitigate it, and direct 
it in a proper course. 

Nor did our Lord intend to intimate that 
all sorrow for so worthy a friend was un- 
lawful, or an unbecoming expression of 
their love : doubtless he was not displeased 
to see his disciples so tenderly affected at 
his removal from them. He who shed 
tears at the grave of Lazarus, blended with 
sighs and groans, cannot be thought to for- 
bid them wholly at his own. He therefore 
did not chide his disciples with angry re- 
proaches, as though they had been entirely 
in the wrong, but gently reasoned with 
them by kind persuasions : Let not your 
hearts be troubled; as rather pitying than 
condemning their sorrow. 

Soon after Jesus had spoken these things, 



JESUS CHRIST. 223 

his heart was greatly troubled to think that 
one of his disciples should prove his ene- 
my : he complained of it at the table, de- 
claring that one of them should betray him. 
This moving declaration greatly affected 
the disciples ; and they began every one 
of them to say to their Master, Lord, is it 
I? But Jesus, giving them no decisive an- 
swer, John, the beloved disciple, whose 
sweet disposition and other amiable quali- 
ties is perpetuated in the peculiar love his 
great Master bore him, and was now re- 
clining on his bosom, asked him, who 
among the disciples could be guilty of so 
detestable a crime ? Jesus told him, that 
the person to whom he should give the 
sop, when he had dipped it, w r as he who 
should betray him. Accordingly, as soon 
as he had dipped the sop in the dish, he 
gave it to Judas Iscariot, saying to him, at 
the same time, That thou doest, do quickly. 

Judas received the sop, without knowing 
any thing of what his Master had told the 
beloved disciple : nor did any of the disci- 
ples, except St. John, entertain the least 
suspicion that Judas was the person who 
would betray their Master. 

The innocent disciples were indeed so 
deeply affected with his declaration, that 
one of them should betray him, that they 
did not remark the words of Jesus to his 
apostate disciple, but continued to ask 
him who was the person that should be 
guilty of so base a crime ? Willing, at 
last, to satisfy their importunity, the blessed 
Jesus declared, that the person who dipped 
his hand with him in the dish should 
betray him. This to the eleven was a 
joyful declaration, but confounding in the 
highest degree to Judas. Impudent as he 
was, it struck him speechless, pointing him 
out plainly, and displaying the foulness of 
his heart. 

While Judas continued mute with con- 
fusion, 



224 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



fusion, the blessed Jesus declared that his 
death should be brought about according 
to the decrees of Heaven, though that 
would not, in the least, mitigate the crime 
of the person who betrayed him ; adding, 
it had been good for that man if he had not 
been born. Judas having now recovered 
himself a little, asserted his innocence by 
a question which implied a denial of the 
charge. But his Master soon silenced him, 
by positively affirming that he was really 
the person. 

As various conjectures have been formed 
concerning the motives which induced the 
perfidious Judas cruelly to deliver up his 
innocent Master into the hands of his ene- 
mies, it may not be improper to cite those 
which appear to be most probable, though 
the decision must be entirely left to the 
reader. 

Some are of opinion, that he was induced 
to commit this villany by the resentment 
of the rebuke given him by his Master, for 
blaming the woman who came with the 
precious ointment, and anointed the head 
of Jesus as he sat at meat in the house of 
Simon the leper. But though this had, 
doubtless, its weight with the traitor, yet 
it could not, I think, be his only motive ; 
because the rebuke was given in general 
to all the disciples, who had certainly been 
forward with him in censuring the woman. 
Nor can we imagine, even if he had been 
rebuked alone, that so mild a reproof could 
provoke any person, however wicked, to 
the horrid act of murdering his friend ; 
much less Judas, whose covetous disposi- 
tion must have disposed him to bear every 
thing from his Master, from whom he ex- 
pected the highest preferment, if he should 
openly declare himself the Messiah, and 
take the reins of government into his own 
hands. 

Others think that Judas betrayed his 



Master through covetousness. But if we 
understand by covetousness the reward 
given by the priests, this opinion is equally 
defective ; for the sum was too small for 
the most sordid wretch to think equiva- 
lent to the life of a friend, especially when 
he expected from him the highest posts 
and advantages. 

Others attribute the perfidy of Judas to 
his doubting whether his Master was the 
Messiah ; and that he betrayed him in a 
fit of despair. But of all the solutions, this 
is the worst founded. For if Judas believ- 
ed his Master to be an impostor, he must 
have observed something in his behaviour 
which led him to form such an opinion of 
him ; and in that case he would doubtless 
have mentioned it to the chief priests and 
elders, when he made the contract with 
them ; which it is plain he did not, as they 
would have reminded him of it when he 
came back and expressed his remorse for 
what he had done. It should also be ob- 
served, that had Judas given them any inti- 
mations of this kind, they would doubtless 
have urged them against our blessed Sa- 
viour himself, in the course of his trial, 
when they were at so great a loss for wit- 
nesses to support their accusation ; and 
against the apostles, afterwards, when they 
reproved them for speaking in the name of 
Jesus. Besides, had Judas thought his 
Master an impostor, and proposed nothing 
by his treachery but the price he put upon 
his life, how came he to sell him for such a 
trifle, when he well knew that the chief 
priests and rulers would have given him 
any sum, rather than not have got him into 
their hands. 

In fine, the supposition that Judas be- 
lieved his Master to be an impostor, is di- 
rectly confuted by the solemn declaration 
he made to the priests, when he declared 
the deepest conviction of the innocence of 

our 



AND SAVIOUR, 

our great Redeemer : I have sinned, says 
he, in betraying the innocent blood. 

It must be remembered, that the remorse 
he felt for this crime, when he saw his Mas- 
ter condemned, was too bitter to be endur- 
ed ; so that he fled even to the king of 
terrors for relief. 

The evangelist St. John tells us, that he 
was of so covetous a disposition, as to steal 
money out of our Lord's bag ; and hence 
we have sufficient reason to believe, that 
he first followed Jesus with a view of ob- 
taining riches, and other temporal advan- 
tages, which he expected the Messiah's 
friends would enjoy. It likewise autho- 
rizes us to think, that as he had hitherto 
reaped none of these advantages, he might 
grow impatient under the delay; and the 
rather, as Jesus had lately discouraged all 
ambitious views among his disciples, and 
neglected to embrace the opportunity of 
erecting that kingdom which was offered 
him by the multitude, who accompanied 
him into Jerusalem with shouts, and cry- 
ing, Hosannah to the Son of David. His 
impatience, therefore, becoming excessive, 
suggested to him the thought of delivering 
his Master into the hands of the council, 
firmly persuaded that he would then be 
obliged to assume the dignity of the Mes- 
siah, and consequently be able to reward 
his followers. For as this court was com- 
posed of the chief priests, elders, and 
scribes, that is, the principal persons of the 
sacerdotal order, the representatives of the 
great families, and the doctors of the law; 
the traitor did not doubt that his Master, 
when brought before so august an assem- 
bly, would assert his pretensions to the title 
• of Messiah, prove his claim to their full 
conviction, gain them over to his interest, 
and immediately enter on his regal dignity. 
And though he must be sensible that the 
measures he took to compass his intention 



JESUS CHRIST. 225 

were very offensive to his Master, yet he 
might think the success of it would pro- 
cure his pardon from so compassionate a 
Master, and even recommend him to fa- 
vour. In the mean time, his project, how- 
ever plausible it may appear to one of his 
turn, was far from being free from diffi- 
culty; and therefore, while he revolved it 
in his own mind, many things might occur 
to stagger his resolution. At length, think- 
ing himself affronted by the rebuke of 
Jesus, at the time when the woman anointed 
the head of his Master, he was provoked 
to execute the resolution he had formed 
of obliging him to alter his measures. 
Rising, therefore, directly from the table, 
he went immediately into the city, to the 
palace of the high-priest, where he found 
the council assembled, consulting how they 
might take Jesus by subtlety in the absence 
of the multitude. 

To them he made known his intention 
of delivering his Master into their hands ; 
and undertook, for a small sum of money, 
to conduct a band of armed men to the 
place where the Saviour of the world 
usually spent the night with his disciples, 
where they might apprehend him without 
the least clanger of a tumult. 

Some reasons may be offered in sup- 
port of this opinion concerning the mo- 
tives which induced Judas to betray his 
Master. First, from the nature of the con- 
tract ; What will ye give me, said he, and 
I will deliver him unto you ? He did not 
mean that he would deliver him up to be 
put to death; for though the priests had 
consulted among themselves, how they 
might destroy Jesus, they had not been so 
abominably wicked as to declare their in- 
tention publicly ; they only proposed to 
bring him to trial, for assuming the cha- 
racter of the Messiah, and to treat him as 
it should appear he deserved. The offer, 

3 L therefore. 



226 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



therefore, which Judas made them, of de- 
livering him up, was in conformity to their 
declared resolutions. Nor did they un- 
derstand it in any other light ; for had the 
priests thought that his design in this w r as 
to get his Master punished with death, 
they must also have thought he believed 
him to be an impostor; in which case they 
would, doubtless, have produced him as 
one of their principal evidences, no person 
being more proper. Also, when Judas re- 
turned to them with the monej r , declaring 
that he had sinned in betraying the inno- 
cent blood, instead of replying, What is that 
to us? see thou to that; it was the most natu- 
ral thing in the world to have upbraided 
him with the stain he had put upon his 
Master's character, by the contract they 
had made with him. 

It is true, they called the money they 
gave him the price of blood; but they did 
not mean this in the strictest sense, as they 
had neither hired Judas to assassinate his 
Master, nor can they be supposed to have 
charged themselves with the guilt of mur- 
dering him. It was only the price of 
blood, consequent on being the reward they 
had given to the traitor, for putting it in 
their power to take away the life of Christ, 
under the colour and form of public justice. 
Now it may be doubted whether Judas 
asked the money as a reward of his service. 
Fie covetously, indeed, kept it; and the 
priests, for that reason, called it the price 
of blood. 

In short, Judas knew that the rulers 
could not take away the life of any person 
whatsoever, the Romans having deprived 
them of that powder, and therefore some 
think he could have no design of this kind 
in delivering him up ; not to mention that 
it was a common opinion among the Jews, 
that the Messiah could never die: an opinion 
that Judas might easily embrace, having 



seen his Master raise several persons, and 
among the rest, one who had been in the 
grave no less than four days. 

Another reason which may be assigned, 
in confirmation of this opinion, is the trai- 
tor's hanging himself, when he found him 
condemned, not by the governor, but by 
the council, whose prerogative it was to 
judge prophets. Had Judas proposed to 
take away the life of his Master, the sen- 
tence of condemnation, passed upon him, 
instead of filling him with despair, must 
have gratified him, being the accomplish- 
ment of his project; whereas, the light 
wherein we have endeavoured to place his 
conduct, shews this circumstance to have 
been perfectly natural. 

He knew him to be thoroughly inno- 
cent, and expected that he would have 
wrought such miracles before the council 
as should have constrained them to be- 
lieve. Therefore, when he found that no- 
thing of this kind was done, and that the 
priests had passed the sentence of con- 
demnation upon him, and were carrying 
him to the governor, to get it executed, he 
repented of his rash and covetous project, 
came to the chief priests and elders, the 
persons to whom he had betrayed him, 
offered them their money again, and so- 
lemnly declared the deepest conviction of 
his Master's innocence, hoping that they 
would have desisted from the prosecution. 
But they were obstinate, and would not 
relent ; upon which his remorse arose to 
such a pitch, that, unable to support the 
torments of his own conscience, he went 
and hanged himself. 

Thus, "it is probable that the traitor's 
intention in delivering up his Master, was 
not to get him punished with death, but 
only to lay him under a necessity of prov- 
ing his pretensions before the grandees, 
whom he had hitherto shunned ; thinking, 



CKRtST BlLlESiSMS nm BKJSAJB 

FI3HKR. SON, & C? LOUDON, 1838. 



AND SAVIOUR, 

that if they had yielded, the whole nation 
would immediately have been raised forth- 
with to the summit of their expectations. 

This account of Judas's conduct is by 
no means calculated to lessen the foulness 
of his crime, which was the blackest ima- 
ginable. For even in the light above- 
mentioned, it implied both an insatiable 
avarice, and a wilful opposition to the 
counsels of Providence, and rendered the 
actor of it a disgrace to human nature. 
But it is calculated to set the credibility of 
the traitor's action in a proper light, and 
to shew that he was not moved to it by 
any thing suspicious in the character of 
his Master; because, according to his view 
of it, his perfidy, instead of implying that 
he entertained suspicions of his Master's 
integrity, plainly proves that he had the 
fullest conviction of his being the Messiah. 
Nor was it possible for any one, who had 
been present at the miracles which Jesus 
wrought, and the doctrines which he de- 
livered, to admit of a doubt of his being 
the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind, 
unless blinded by the most obstinate pre- 
judice. 

CHAP. XXXIII. 

Jesus institutes the Sacrament, in Comme- 
moration of his Death and Sufferings. — 
Settles a Dispute which arose among his 
Disciples. — Predicts Peter's Cowardice in 
denying his Master. — Fortifies his Dis- 
ciples against the approaching Shock. — 
Foretells Peter's Cowardice again. — 
Preaches to, and prays with, his Disciples 
for the last Time. — Passionate Address of 
our Lord to his Father, in the Garden. 

FHlHE great Redeemer, ever mindful of 
the grand design of his mission, even 
the salvation of lost and perishing sinners, 



JESUS CHRIST. 227 

was not in the least prevented by the trea- 
chery of his apostate disciple. For know- 
ing that he must become a sacrifice for 
sin, &c. he instituted the sacrament of his 
supper, to perpetuate the memory of it 
throughout all ages. Accordingly, as they 
were eating the paschal supper, Jesus took 
bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave 
it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this 
is my body, Matt. xxvi. 26. Observe this 
rite no longer in remembrance of your 
deliverance from Egypt, but in remem- 
brance of me; who, by dying for you, will 
bring you out of the spiritual bondage, 
a bondage far worse than the Egyptian, 
under which your fathers groaned, and 
will establish you in the glorious liberty 
of the children of God. Do it in remem- 
brance of me, who, by laying down my 
life, will ransom you from sin, from death, 
from hell, and will set open the gates of 
heaven to you, that you may enter immor- 
tality in triumph. 

Having given the bread to his disciples, 
he also took the cup, and gave it to them, 
saying, Drink ye all of it ; for this is my 
blood of the new testament, which is shed 
for many for the remission of sins, Matt, 
xxvi. 27, 28. All of you, and all of my 
disciples, in all ages, must drink of this 
cup, because it represents my blood, shed 
for the remission of the sins of mankind ; 
my blood, by which the new covenant be- 
tween God and man is ratified. It is, 
therefore, my blood of the new covenant : 
so that this institution exhibits to your 
joyful meditation, the grand basis of the 
hopes of the children of men, and perpe- 
tuates the memory of it to the end of the 
world. He added, I will not drink hence- 
forth of the fruit of the vine, until that day 
when I drink it new with you in my Father s 
kingdom, Matt. xxvi. 29- 

The manifestation of the Son of God is 

the 



228 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



the most illustrious, the most momentous 
event, that is possible to engage the me- 
ditations of men. To his life and death, 
his resurrection and ascension into glory, 
we are indebted for our hopes and assu- 
rances of pardon, for our peace, for our 
happiness. To procure our salvation, he 
made the most amazing condescension 
from the dignity he enjoyed with his Fa- 
ther, by putting on the vail of flesh ; he 
poured divine instruction from his lips, 
and shone forth with an all-perfect and 
all-lovely example. For our benefit, he 
submitted to a course of the most cruel 
treatment from his bitter enemies, to the 
aoonies of the cross, and to the stroke of 
the king of terrors. For our happiness, he 
arose again with power and lustre, ascended 
into the mansions of eternal happiness, 
manages our affairs with the Father, and 
holds the reins of government. With the 
greatest wisdom and goodness, therefore, 
this beneficent Jesus instituted a rite, that 
should recall his love to our memories, and 
awake each pious passion in our breast ; a 
rite, which, by the breaking of bread, and 
the pouring out of wine, should represent 
to us in a striking manner, that most signal 
proof of the affection both of him and his 
heavenly Father, when his tender frame 
was exposed to wounds and bruises, when 
streams of the most precious blood issued 
from his sacred veins. 

The more we reflect on this instance of 
divine love, the more we shall perceive 
that there was a peculiar propriety in 
pointing out, by a particular ordinance, a 
fact of such immense importance in the 
system of revelation. Nay, we may ven- 
ture to conjecture, that in some dark and 
corrupt ages, when the scriptures were but 
little known by the common people, and 
hardly studied by the priests, the death of 
our Saviour would have been almost for- 



gotten, had not the remembrance of it 
been renewed by the celebration of this 
sacred ordinance. 

It should also be remembered, that the 
vanities of the world, the allurements of 
sensual pleasure, the charms of ambition, 
the splendour of riches; in short, tempta- 
tions from present objects of every kind ; 
have often too powerful an influence on 
our temper and conduct. They have a 
fatal aptitude to draw the soul aside to 
folly, and to obliterate the impressions of 
things divine. It was, therefore, a wise, a 
kind intention, of our great Redeemer, by 
a frequent repetition of the sacramental 
feast, to call back the wandering heart of 
man to a sense of his duty and obligations 
as a Christian. 

Besides, though the religion of the im- 
maculate Jesus is altogether gentle, gene- 
rous, and beneficent; though its whole 
tendency is to correct the passions, sweeten 
the dispositions, and enlarge the affections 
of men ; and though it enforces all this 
upon us by motives surprisingly powerful 
and affecting ; yet such is the perverseness 
of the human heart, that jealousies and 
contentions, envy, wrath, and malice, too 
often find admittance there. Was it not 
then an instance of our Saviour's wisdom 
and benevolence, by uniting us together 
at the sacrament of his body and blood, 
to urge the putting away all bitterness, 
anger, evil-speaking, and revenge ; and to 
inspire us with condescension, compassion, 
and love? 

How careful, therefore, ought we to be 
in performing this duty appointed by our 
dying Saviour! We should, in order to 
receive it worthily, employ our meditation 
on the design and excellency of the gos- 
pel ; on the noble system of the doctrines 
and duties it contains; on the illustrious, 
divine, and complete example, of the 

blessed 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



229 



blessed Jesus; on the important privileges, 
the valuable promises, and the ravishing 
prospects, his revelation affords | and on 
the bright and convincing evidence with 
which it is attended. 

AVe should contemplate that essential 
and unparalleled benevolence of the Fa- 
ther, in appointing the means of our re- 
demption ; on the readiness manifested by 
the Son of God in undertaking our cause ; 
and on his wonderful transactions in the 
prosecution of this grand, this amazing 
work. Above all, we should get impressed 
upon our souls a strong sense of the spe- 
cial and immediate purposes for which this 
sacrament was appointed 

When we actually join in communion, 
we should be careful that our affections 
be properly directed and warmly engaged. 
To have our hearts fixed upon the vanities, 
the profits, and the cares, of this world, is 
a direct violation of the ordinance; and 
therefore we should be extremely careful 
to maintain a right temper and behaviour 
at that time. We should study to abstract 
our thoughts as much as possible from 
every foreign, every terrestrial, considera- 
tion, and to have our passions fervently 
employed in the solemn service. " Retire, 
O my soul, (each of us should say,) from 
this inferior scene of things, from all its 
pleasures and all its pursuits, and hold 
communion with the Almighty, through 
his Son, the immaculate Jesus. Meditate 
upon that infinite grace of Omnipotence, 
which formed that amazing plan that dis- 
played pardon, peace, and endless happi- 
ness, to so undeserving a creature as thou 
art. Recollect that surprising condescen- 
sion and tenderness of thy compassionate 
Redeemer, which induced him to bring 
down from heaven salvation to the sons of 
men. Call to mind the admirable instruc- 
tions he offered, the charming pattern he 



exhibited, the hard labours and sufferings 
he endured, in the course of his ministry; 
especially call to mind the ignominy, the 
reproaches, the agonies he endured when 
he hung upon the cross, and purchased for 
thee eternal mercy. Think upon these 
affecting subjects, till thine heart is filled 
with sorrow for thine iniquities, till thy 
faith becomes livety, active, and strong; 
till thy gratitude and love are elevated to 
the highest pitch ; till thy obedience is 
rendered uniform, steady, and complete. 
Hast thou, O my God, the parent of uni- 
versal nature ! hast thou so illustriously 
manifested thy compassion for sinners, as 
not to spare thine own Son ! hast thou sent 
the Saviour into the lower world, in order 
to raise the children of men to immorta- 
lity, perfection, and glory? and am I now 
in thy presence on purpose to celebrate 
this institution, which requireth me to 
commemorate the death of the great Mes- 
siah, to declare my public acceptance of 
his excellent revelation, and my regard to 
my Christian brethren ? May then the re- 
membrance of his beneficence dwell upon 
my mind, and upon my tongue, for ever 
and ever ! May I consider and comply 
with the intention of his gospel; and may 
the sentiments of kindness and charity to- 
wards all my fellow mortals, and fellow 
disciples, reign in my breast with increasing 
purity, with increasing zeal \" 

Such are the views that should possess 
our souls when we partake of this sacred 
ordinance ; but it will signify little to en- 
tertain these views at that time, unless the 
effects of them are apparent in our future 
conduct and conversation; for a transient 
glow of affection, or sallies of immediate 
delight, were not principally intended in 
this institution. 

The blessed Jesus did not ordain it as a 
ceremony or charm, but as a proper method 

3 M of 



230 



THE LIFE OE OUR BLESSED LORD 



of establishing our hearts in the fear and 
love of God, who gave his only beloved 
Son to die for wretched sinners. Though 
ye have, therefore, O Christians ! obeyed 
the Redeemer's command in this appoint- 
ment, and found your passions greatly 
moved, yet this is not the whole required 
at your hands : it will justly be expected 
that you should live to the honour of your 
divine Master. As you have solemnly 
professed your faith in him, and your 
love towards him, the reality of your faith 
and love should be demonstrated by walk- 
ing more strictly in the way of his pre- 
cepts, and by abounding in that hea- 
venly character and temper which his 
spotless example so engagingly recom- 
mends. Thus only will the sacrament be- 
come subservient to the most beneficial 
purposes. Thus only will it be instrumental 
in making us meet for sharing in the dig- 
nity and felicity possessed by our exalted 
Saviour. 

May therefore all the followers of the 
immaculate Jesus, by uniting together at 
his sacred table, advance from holiness to 
holiness, till they arrive at the regions of 
eternal felicity ! 

Our blessed Saviour, after delivering the 
sacramental cup, and telling them that his 
blood w 7 as shed for them, mentioned the 
treachery of Judas a second time : Behold, 
he is at hand that doth betray me. Matt, 
xxvi. 45. This second declaration was 
made very properly after the institution of 
the sacrament, which exhibits the highest 
instance of our great Redeemer's love to 
mankind, his dying to obtain the remission 
of their sins; for it abundantly proves, that 
the person who could be deliberately guilty 
of such an injury to so kind a friend, must 
have been a monster, the foulness of whose 
ingratitude cannot be described by the 
force of language. 



It is thought that some of the disciples, 
particularly struck with horror at the 
thought of Judas's treachery, rebuked him, 
by asking him, with surprise, how he could 
betray his Master? This accusation Judas 
no doubt repelled, by impudently denying 
the fact : but consciousness of guilt giving 
edge to the reproaches of his brethren, 
and to every circumstance of the affair, he 
immediately left the company, exceedingl}?" 
displeased at thinking himself insulted and 
affronted. 

The important, the awful scene, now ap- 
proached, when the great work was to be 
finished. The traitor, Judas, was gone to 
the chief priests and elders, for a band of 
soldiers to apprehend him ; but this did 
not discompose the Redeemer of man- 
kind ; he took occasion to meditate on the 
glory that would accrue both to himself 
and to his Almighty Father, from those 
sufferings, and spake of it to his disciples. 
Now, said he, is the Son of man glorified, 
and God is glorified in him. He told them 
that, having already clone honour to his 
Father by the past actions of his life, and 
being about to honour him yet farther by 
his sufferings and death, which would dis- 
play his perfections, particularly his infi- 
nite love to the human race, in the most 
astonishing; and amiable ligjat, he was in 
his turn to receive honour from his lather; 
intimating, that his human nature was to 
be exalted to the right hand of Omnipo- 
tence; and that his mission from God was 
to be supported by irrefragable attestations. 
But his disciples imagining that he spake 
of the glory of a temporal kingdom, their 
ambition was again revived, and they be- 
gan to dispute, with as much keenness as 
ever, which of them should be greatest in 
that kingdom. This contention Jesus sup- 
pressed by the arguments he had formerly 
used for the same purpose. Among the 

Gentiles, 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



231 



Gentiles, said he, they are reckoned the 
greatest who have the greatest power, and 
have exercised it in the most absolute 
manner: but your greatness shall be very 
different from theirs; it shall not consist in 
being unlimited with regard to tyrannical 
power, even though it should be joined 
with an affectation of titles, which denote 
qualities truly honourable ; but whosoever 
desires to be great, or chief, among you, 
let him be so by his humility, and the ser- 
vice he renders to the rest, in imitation of 
me, your Master, whose greatness consists 
in this, that I am become the servant of 
you all. Adding; as they had continued 
with him in his temptation, he would be- 
stow upon them such a kingdom as his 
Father had appointed for him. At the 
same time, to check their ambition, and 
lead them to form a just notion of his king- 
dom, he told them, that he was soon to 
leave them; and that whither he was going, 
they could not at that time follow him ; 
for which reason, instead of contending 
with one another which of them should 
be the greatest, they w r ould do well to be 
united among themselves in the happy 
bond of love. For by loving one another 
sincerely and fervently, they would prove 
themselves his disciples, to the conviction 
of mankind, who could not be ignorant 
that love was a distino;uishino; part of his 
character. 

This is termed a new commandment, 
not because mutual love had never been 
enjoined to mankind before, but because 
it was a precept of peculiar excellency, 
for the word, translated new, in the He- 
brew language denotes excellency and 
truth ; he also called this a new command- 
ment, because they w T ere to exercise it un- 
der a new relation, according to a new 
measure, and from new motives. They 
were to love one another, in the relation 



of his disciples, and in that degree of love 
which he had shewed to them ; for they 
were to lay down their lives for their 
brethren. 

This excellent doctrine, however, did not 
make such an impression on Peter, as the 
words which Jesus had spoken concerning 
a place, whither his disciples could not 
come. He therefore replied by asking, 
where he was going ? To which Jesus an- 
swered, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me 
now, but shalt follow me afterward. 

In order to make his disciples farther 
humble, watchful, and kindly affectioned 
one towards another, he assured them that 
Satan was seeking to ruin them all by his 
temptations : And the Lord said, Simon, 
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have 
you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I 
have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not : 
and when thou art converted, strengthen thy 
brethren. Peter was greatly offended that 
his Master should have singled him out as 
the w r eakest: for so he interpreted his 
praying for him particularly : and suppos- 
ing that he mentioned Satan's seeking to 
sift him, as the thing which would hinder 
him from following his Master, replied, 
Why cannot I follow thee now ? Is there 
any road more terrible than the dark valley 
of the shadow of death? Yet through these 
black and gloomy shades I am willing this 
moment to accompany thee. 

Jesus, knowing his weak though sincere 
resolution, answered, Art thou so very 
confident of thine own strength ? I tell 
thee, that this very night, before the cock 
crows, thou wilt thrice deny me to be thy 
Master. 

Our blessed Saviour having; finished what 
he had to say to Peter in particular, turned 
himself to his other disciples, and put them 
in mind, that when they were first sent out 
he directed them to rely wholly upon the 

Almighty 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Almighty for assistance. When I sent you 
formerly, said he, to preach the gospel, you 
may remember I ordered you to go without 
any provision, either for your sustenance 
or defence, assuring you, that though you 
would indeed meet with great opposition, 
yet Providence would dispose some men 
in all places to be your friends, and to fur- 
nish you with all necessaries ; and accord- 
ingly you found that you wanted for no- 
thing, but were wonderfully supported, 
without any care or provision of your own, 
in the whole journey, and finished your 
work with success. But now the case is 
very different ; the time of that greatest 
trial and distress, whereof I have often 
forewarned you, is just at hand : and you 
may now make all the provision in your 
power, and arm yourselves against it as 
much as you are able. 

I have finished the work for which I was 
sent into the world ; and nothing now re- 
mains for me, but to undergo those suf- 
ferings which the prophets have foretold 
concerning me, and to complete this 
whole dispensation of Providence, by sub- 
mitting- at last to a cruel and ignominious 
death. 

The disciples, thinking their great Mas- 
ter meant that they should arm themselves 
in a literal sense, and endeavour to oppose 
the assaults that would shortly be made 
upon them by the Jews, answered, Lord, 
here are two swords : but the blessed Jesus, 
who only intended to convey an idea of 
their approaching distress and temptations, 
and to arm them against the surprise, re- 
plied, It is enough; you need not trouble 
yourselves about any more weapons of this 
nature for your defence. 

Be not terrified and disconsolate, added 
the compassionate Jesus, because I have 
told you that I must undergo great suffer- 
ings, and be taken away from you for 



a time. You have always been taught to 
believe in God, who is the almighty pre- 
server and governor of all things; and to 
rely on him for deliverance in every afflic- 
tion and distress. 

Learn now, in like manner, to believe in 
me, who have all power committed to me, 
as the preserver and head of my church ; 
and trust in me to accomplish fully all 
things that I have promised you. If you 
do this, and persist stedfastly in the be- 
lief of my doctrine, and in the obedience 
of my commands, nothing in this vale 
of misery, not even persecution, or death 
itself, shall be able to hinder you from 
attaining the happiness I have proposed 
to you. For in heaven, my Father's 
house, there is abundant room to receive 
you ; otherwise I would not have filled 
your minds with the hopes and expecta- 
tion of happiness. But as there are man- 
sions sufficient for you in another state, 
you may with confidence and assurance 
hope for the full accomplishment of my 
promises, notwithstanding all this present 
world may contrive or act against you. 
And ye ought also to bear patiently my 
departure from you at this time ; since I 
only leave you to prepare a place, and open 
the portals of those eternal habitations 
where I shall be ever with you. When I 
have prepared a place for you in that eter- 
nal state, I will again return, and take you 
to myself. Nor shall 3<ou evermore be se- 
parated from me, but continue with me to 
all eternity, in full participation of my eter- 
nal glory and happiness, in the blissful re- 
gions of the heavenly Canaan. You must 
now surely know whither I am going, and 
the way that leads to these happy seats of 
immortality. 

But the disciples, whose minds were not 
yet fully weaned from the expectation of a 
temporal power and glory, did not under- 
stand 



AND SAVIOUR, 

stand this discourse of their great and 
beloved Master. Accordingly, Thomas 
replied, Lord, we cannot comprehend whi- 
ther thou art going ; and therefore must 
needs be ignorant of the way. 

To which the blessed Jesus answered, I 
myself, as I have often told you, am the 
true and only way to life ; nor can any 
man go thither by any other way. If ye 
say, ye do not know the Father, I tell you, 
that no man who knoweth me can be ig- 
norant of my Father, of his will, and the 
manner of pleasing him : if ye know me, 
ye must know that all my factions have 
been directed by the will of the Father, and 
for the glory of his name. 

Philip answered, Lord, shew us but once 
the Father, and we shall be fully satisfied. 

Jesus replied, Have I been so long with 
you, Philip, and yet art thou a stranger to 
him who sent me? I tell you, that to know 
one, is to be acquainted with both. What 
then can you mean by desiring to see the 
Father, as if you could be still ignorant of 
him, after being so long acquainted with 
me ? Be assured, Philip, that whatsoever 
I speak is the declaration of his will, and 
whatsoever I do is the operation of his 
power. And if you refuse to believe my 
own affirmation, yet, at least, let my works 
convince you : for they carry in them un- 
deniable evidences of a divine power. He 
that believeth on me, the uwks that I do 
shall he do also ; and greater works than these 
shall he do, because I go unto my Father, 
John xiv. 12. 

Surely then you have matter sufficient 
to comfort and support your spirits, under 
the thoughts of my departure from you. 
Ye have abundant reason to believe that I 
have power to perform all the promises I 
have made you; and the design of my de- 
parture actually to perform them. When 
J am returned to my Father, ye shall soon 



JESUS CHRIST. 233 

receive sufficient pledges of my care and 
remembrance of you. You shall be endued 
with power not only to perform the same 
works ye have seen me do, as healing dis- 
eases, giving sight to the blind, casting out 
devils, and the like, for the conviction of 
the Jews ; but even to do greater things 
than these; to speak with all kinds of 
tongues, and to propagate my religion 
among the Gentiles, even through all the 
nations of the earth. 

And whatsoever ye shall ask my Fa- 
ther, in my name, as being my disciples, 
and in order to promote the work of the 
gospel, shall certainly be granted you. — 
That God may be greatly glorified by the 
extraordinary success and spreading of the 
religion of his Son, I say, that whatsoever ye 
shall ask, I will take care, after my return 
to the Father, that it shall be granted you. 
Only ye must remember, as the necessary 
condition upon which all depends, that ye 
be careful, above all things, to continue 
stedfast and immoveable in your obedience 
to my commands ; this is the only true 
mark you can give of the sincerity of your 
love towards me ; it is more than your 
grieving at my departure, or any other ex- 
ternal indication of zeal whatsoever. 

The Father, I say, shall send you an- 
other advocate and comforter, even the 
Holy Spirit, the author and teacher of 
truth, who shall guide and direct, assist 
and comfort you, in all cases. This Spirit 
the sensual and corrupt world cannot re- 
ceive; having no knowledge of the divine 
truths, or disposition to be governed by 
them. But ye know them, and are dis- 
posed to entertuin them. The Spirit of the 
Father is already within you, by his secret 
and invisible efficacy; and shall hereafter 
appear in you openly, by great and visible 
manifestations. 

Thus, though I must depart from you, 

3 N ' yet 



234 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



yet I do by no means leave you comfort- 
less. I leave you with a promise of the 
Holy Spirit ; and I leave you in expecta- 
tion also of my own return. For though, 
after a very little while, I shall appear no 
more to the world, yet to you I will appear 
again ; for I shall live again, and ye also 
shall live with me. 

When, therefore, I have conquered and 
triumphed over death, ye shall understand 
more fully, and it shall appear more visible, 
by great and manifest effects, that I act in 
all things agreeably to my Father's will, 
and am perfectly invested with his power ; 
and that ye, in like manner, have my 
power and commission communicated to 
you; so that there is a perfect unity and 
communion between us. Only ye must 
remember, that the one necessary con- 
dition on which all depends, is, that ye 
continue stedfast and immoveable in your 
faith in me, and in your obedience to my 
commands. He, and he only, who em- 
braces my doctrine, and obeys and prac- 
tises it, shall be judged to be sincere in his 
love towards me. And he who loves me 
in that manner, shall be loved by my Fa- 
ther; and I myself also will love him, and 
manifest myself to him. 

Here Judas Thaddeus interrupted his 
Master, saying, Lord, how wilt thou choose 
to manifest thyself to us, a few particular 
persons, and not to the generality of the 
world ? 

Jesus replied, I have already told you 
the reason for my acting in this manner ; 
because the generality of the world are not 
disposed to obey my commandments, the 
only way of maintaining communion with 
me. But ye are disposed to embrace my 
doctrine, and to obey it ; and, therefore, I 
manifest myself to you. And whoever 
else will so love me as to keep my com- 
mandments, him also will I and my Father 



love, and will maintain communion with 
him, and all spiritual blessings shall be 
poured down upon him, and he shall be 
made a partaker of happiness and eternal 
life. 

On the contrary, whoever loves me not, 
that is, obeys not my commandments, 
shall have no intercourse or communion 
with me. Neither will my Father love or 
honour him, or make any manifestations 
of himself to him ; for as my command- 
ments are not my own, but the Father's 
commandments ; therefore, whoever dis- 
honours me, my Father will look upon him 
as dishonouring himself. 

These things have I briefly spoken to 
you now, according to the shortness of the 
time I am to continue with you, and to 
comfort you for the present against my de- 
parture. But when the Comforter whom 
I promised you is come, even the Holy 
Spirit, whom my Father shall send you on 
my account, he shall instruct you more 
fully, recalling to your remembrance what 
you have forgotten, explaining what is yet 
obscure, and supplying what is farther ne- 
cessary to be taught you, and to be un- 
derstood by you. 

In the mean time, I take my leave of 
you, and my blessing I leave with you : 
not formally, and after the common fa- 
shion of the world, but affectionately and 
sincerely retaining a careful remembrance 
of you, and with an earnest desire and in- 
tention of returning again speedily to you. 
Wherefore be not overmuch grieved for 
me and my departure, nor fearful of what 
may then befall yourselves. I go away 
from you, but it is with an intention, as I 
have already told you, to return to you 
again. If you loved me with a wise and 
understanding affection, ye would rejoice, 
instead of grieving, at my present depar- 
ture ; because I am going to my Father, 



AND SAVIOUR, 

the supreme author of all glory and hap- 
piness. 

These things I have now told you be- 
fore they come to pass, that when ye see 
them happen, your faith in me, and your 
expectation of the performance of all my 
promises, may be confirmed and strength- 
ened. The time will not allow me to say 
much more to you at present ; my end 
draweth near; the ruler of this world, the 
prince of the power of darkness, is at this 
instant employing all his wicked instru- 
ments to apprehend and destroy me. Not 
that either the power of the devil, or the 
malice of man, can at all prevail over me, 
but because the time of my suffering, ac- 
cording to the appointment of Divine Wis- 
dom, is arrived; and that I may demon- 
strate to the world my love and obedience 
to my Father, I willingly submit myself to 
be put to death by the hands of sinful and 
cruel men. Rise up, let us be going, that 
I may enter on my sufferings. 

Having thus spoken, they finished the 
passover with singing a hymn, and went 
out to the mount of Olives. 

On their arrival at the place which was 
to be the scene of his sufferings, he desired 
them to fortify themselves by prayer, and 
forewarned them of the terrible effects his 
sufferings would have upon them ; they 
would make them all stumble that very 
night, agreeable to the prophecy of Ze- 
chariah : I will smite the Shepherd, and the 
sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. 
To strengthen their faith, therefore, he not 
only mentioned his own resurrection, but 
told them they should see him in Galilee, 
after he was risen from the dead. 

On our blessed Saviour's mentioning the 
offence that his disciples would take at his 
suffering, Peter recollected what had been 
>aid to him in particular, before they left 
the house. Grieved therefore afresh, to 



JESUS CHRIST. 235 

find his Master entertain such thoughts of 
him, and being now armed with a sword, 
the vehemence of his temper urged him to 
boast a second time of his courageous and 
close attachment to his Master. Though 
all men, said he, should be offended because of 
thee, yet will I never be offended. But Jesus, 
knowing that human confidence and secu- 
rity were weak and frail, thought proper 
to forewarn him again of his danger, and 
told him, that the cock should not crow 
before he had denied him. 

Peter, however, still continued to repeat 
his confidence — I will die with thee, but 
never deny thee. The disciples all joined 
with Peter in professing their fixed resolu- 
tion of suffering death, rather than they 
would deny their Master ; but the event 
fully confirmed the prediction of our Sa- 
viour. From hence we may learn, how 
ignorant men are of their own hearts, and 
that the strongest resolutions in their own 
strength avail nothing. 

The compassionate Redeemer of man- 
kind, not willing to lose one single moment 
of the short time of his ministry that yet 
remained, continued to instruct his disci- 
ples in the great truths he came into the 
world to explain ; and, from the vines 
which were growing round him on the 
mount of Olives, he began his excellent 
discourse with the parable of the vine, to 
the following import. 

Hitherto, said the blessed Jesus, the 
Jewish church and nation have been the 
peculiar care of Providence ; as a choice 
and goodly vine, likely to bring forth 
much fruit, is the special care of the 
husbandman. But from henceforth my 
church, my disciples, and the professors 
of my religion, of what country or nation 
soever they be, shall become the people of 
God, and the peculiar care of divine Pro- 
vidence. I will be to them as the root and 

stock 



236 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



stock of a vine, of which they are the 
branches, and my Father the husbandman 
and vine-dresser. 

As in the management of a choice vine, 
the skilful vine-dresser cuts off all barren 
and superfluous branches, that they may 
not burden nor exhaust the tree ; and 
prunes and dresses the fruitful branches, 
that they may grow continually, and so 
bear more fruit : thus, in the government of 
my church, all useless, wicked, and incor- 
rigible members, my Father, sooner or later, 
by his judgments, cuts off and destroys ; 
but those who are sincerely pious and good, 
he, by the various and merciful dispensa- 
tions of his providence towards them, tries, 
purifies, and amends, that they may daily 
improve, and be more and more abundant 
in all good works. 

Now ye, my apostles, are such members 
as these, being purified in heart and mind, 
and prepared for every good work, by your 
lively faith in me, and sincere resolutions 
to obey my commands. Continue sted- 
fastly in this state, and then you may be 
sure of deriving all spiritual blessings from 
me, as the branches receive sap and nou- 
rishment from the vine. But as a branch, 
without continuing in the vine, cannot 
bear any fruit, but presently dries up and 
perishes; so ye, unless ye continue stedfast 
in your communion with me, (by a lively 
faith and sincere obedience, so as to re- 
ceive grace and spiritual blessings,) can 
never bring forth any good fruit of true 
holiness and righteousness, but w r ill fall 
into vanity, superstition, and wickedness, 
and, at last, utterly perish. 

I am, as it were, I say, the root and stock 
of the vine, whereof ye are the branches. 
He that continues to adhere to me, by a 
constant faith in me, shall bring forth much 
fruit unto everlasting life; even as a branch 
which continues to grow in a vine, and re- 



ceives sap and nourishment from it. But 
he that does not continue his relation to me 
in this manner, becomes a false and use- 
less professor, and shall be cast out from 
me, and perish for ever; even as a fruitless 
branch is cut off from the vine, and left to 
wither and dry, and is, at last, burned in 
the fire. 

If you continue in me, by believing my 
words, and holding fast what ye believe, 
and obeying and practising it accordingly j 
no power or malice, either of man or of 
devils, shall be able to hurt you, or oppose 
your doctrines. For though I be absent 
from you in body, yet I will hear your 
prayers, and my Father himself also will 
hear you : and whatsoever ye shall ask, 
for the glory of the Almighty, and the 
propagation of my true religion in the 
world, shall certainly be granted you. But, 
above all things, carefully remember to 
demonstrate your continuance in me, by 
abounding in all good works of holiness, 
righteousness, and charity. This is the 
honour which my Father desires and ex- 
pects from you ; even as it is the glory and 
desire of a vine-dresser, that his vine 
should bring forth much fruit. And this 
is the honour that I myself expect from 
you, that ye shall prove yourselves to be 
really and indeed my disciples, by imitat- 
ing my example, and obeying my com- 
mands. This ye are bound to do, not only 
in duty, but in gratitude also ; for as my 
Father hath loved me, so have I also loved 
you ; and ye in like manner ought to love 
me again, that you may continue to be 
loved by me. But the way to express 
your love towards me, and to continue to 
be loved by me, is to keep my command- 
ments ; even as I, by keeping my Fa- 
ther's commandments, have expressed my 
love towards him, and continue to be loved 
by him. 

These 



AND SAVIOUR, 

These things have I spoken to you be- 
fore my departure, that the comfort ye have 
taken in my presence may be continued in 
my absence, and even increased until the 
coming of the Holy Spirit; as it will be 
upon this condition, which I have so often 
repeated to you, that you keep my com- 
mandments. And the principal of these 
commandments is, that ye love one ano- 
ther ; not after the common fashion of the 
world, but in such a manner as I have loved 
you : nor can you be ignorant what sort 
of love that is, when I tell you that I am 
now going to lay down my life for you. 
This is the highest instance in which it is 
possible for a man to express his love to- 
wards his greatest friends and benefactors ; 
but this I am now going to do for 3 r ou, and 
for all mankind. I do not consider you as 
my benefactors, but as my friends, upon 
this easy condition only, that ye keep my 
commandments. I might, indeed, justly 
call vou servants, considerino; the infinite 
distance between me and you, and the 
obligations ye have to obey my command- 
ments; but I have not treated you as ser- 
vants, (who are not admitted into their 
Master's counsels,) but as friends, reveal- 
ing to you the whole will of my Father 
with all freedom and plainness. 

I have, I say, behaved myself to you as 
to the nearest friends. Not that you first 
obliged me, or did any acts of kindness 
for me ; but I have freely, and of my own 
good pleasure, chosen you to be my apos- 
tles, and the preachers of my gospel, that 
you may go and declare the will of God to 
the world, and bring forth much and lasting 
fruit, in the conversion of men to the know- 
ledge of the truth, and to the profession 
and practice of true religion. In the per- 
formance of this work, whatsoever ye shall 
ask of my Father, in my name, in order 
to enable you to perform it effectually and 



JESUS CHRIST. 237 

with full success, shall certainly be granted 
you. 

Now all these things, which I have 
spoken unto you concerning the greatness 
of my love towards you, in choosing you 
to be my apostles, in revealing unto you 
the whole will of my Father, and in laying 
down my life for you, I have urged and 
inculcated upon you for this reason chiefly, 
as I at first told you, that ye may learn, 
after my example, to love one another. The 
world, indeed, you must expect, will hate 
and persecute you, upon my account. 
But this you ought not to be surprised or 
terrified at, knowing that it is no worse 
treatment than I myself have met with be- 
fore you. 

Be not, therefore, surprised when ye 
meet with opposition ; nor think to find 
better treatment in the world than I my- 
self have clone. Remember what I have 
already told you, that the disciple is not 
above his Master ; nor is he that is sent 
greater than he that sent him. If men 
had generally and readily embraced my 
doctrine, you might, indeed, have had 
some reason to expect that they would 
willingly have received yours also. But 
since I myself have suffered great indigni- 
ties and persecutions from wicked and per- 
verse, from obstinate and incorrigible, men, 
only for opposing their vices, it is highly 
reasonable that you should expect to un- 
dergo the like treatment upon the like 
account. In all which sufferings, you will, 
moreover, have this farther comfortable 
consideration to support you, that the jus- 
tice of your own cause, and the injustice 
of your persecutors, will by that means 
most evidently appear; seeing ye are per- 
secuted only for professing and preaching 
in my name the doctrine of true religion, 
and they persecute you only because the} r 
know not God, and out of mere malice 

3 O will 



238 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



will not bear to be instructed in his com- 
mands. 

Indeed, had not I appeared to the world 
with all possible demonstrations of autho- 
rity and truth, teaching them a most holy 
and undeniable doctrine, sufficient to re- 
brm their manners and amend their lives, 
.and moreover demonstrated my divine com- 
mission by such proofs as ought to satisfy 
and convince the most doubting and sus- 
picious minds, they might have had some 
plea and excuse of ignorance for their 
unbelief. But now, since all reasonable 
evidence has been offered them, and pro- 
per methods used for their conversion and 
salvation, and yet they wilfully and obsti- 
nately reject these means of grace, it is 
plain they have no excuse for their sin ; 
but they oppose and persecute you only 
because they will not forsake their worldly 
lusts, and out of mere malice will not bear 
to be instructed in the commands of the 
Almighty. So that they who oppose and 
persecute you, as they have before perse- 
cuted me, shew plainly that they are haters 
of God, and of his most holy command- 
ments. Which is, as I have already told 
you, a plain evidence of the justice of your 
own cause, and of the injustice of your 
persecutors'. 

If I had not, I say, done such works 
among them as no man ever did, they 
might, indeed, have had some appearance 
of excuse for their sin. But now, having 
seen abundant proofs of my authority, and 
undeniable evidence of the truth of my 
doctrine, and yet wilfully and obstinately 
persisting to oppose it, because inconsist- 
ent with their lusts, it is plain that their 
dishonouring me, is a dishonour done to 
my Father himself, and a direct contempt 
of his commands: so that they are utterly 
inexcusable. But it is no wonder, when 
men have given themselves wholly up to 



be governed by worldly affections, passions, 
and vices, they should act contrary to all 
the reason and evidence in the world. For 
this is but the natural consequence of ob- 
stinate and habitual wickedness ; and here- 
by is only fulfilled in me what holy David 
long since prophetically complained of, that 
they hated him without a cause. 

But notwithstanding all the opposition 
that wicked and incorrigible men will 
make against my doctrine, there will not 
be wanting powerful promoters of it, who 
shall effectually overcome all opposition. 
For the Comforter, whom I said I will 
send you from heaven, even that Spirit of 
truth which cometh forth and is sent 
from the Father, shall, when he cometh, 
with wonderful efficacy bear testiomony to 
the truth of my doctrine, and cause it to be 
spread through the world with incredible 
success. Nay, and ye yourselves also, 
though now so weak, fearful, and doubt- 
ing, shall then very powerfully bear testi- 
mony to the truth of all the things whereof 
ye, having been all along present with 
me, have been eye-witnesses from the 
beginning. 

_ 

Thus have I warned you, beforehand, 
of the opposition and persecution ye must 
expect to meet with in the world, that 
when it cometh ye may not be surprised 
and terrified, so as to be discouraged there- 
by from persisting in the performance of 
your duty. 

Ye must expect, particularly, that the 
chief priests and rulers of the Jews, men 
of great hypocrisy and superstition, zealous 
for their ceremonies and ritual traditions, 
but careless to know and obey the will of 
the Almighty in matters of great and eter- 
nal obligation, and invincibly prejudiced 
against the spiritual holiness and purity of 
my doctrine ; these, I say, you must ex- 
pect will excommunicate you as apostates, 



AND SAVIOUR, 

and cast you out of all their societies, as 
the vilest of malefactors. Nay, to such an 
absurd height of malice will their super- 
stition carry them, that they will even 
fancy they promote the service of God and 
the cause of religion, when they most bar- 
barously murder and destroy you. But I 
have warned you of all this beforehand, 
that ye may prepare and fortify yourselves 
against it ; and that when it cometh to 
pass, ye may remember I foretold it to you, 
and your faith in me may thereby be 
strengthened. 

It was needless to acquaint you with 
these scenes of suffering while I was with 
you : but now being about to leave you, I 
think it necessary to acquaint you what 
things are likely to come upon you after 
my departure, and also, at the same time, 
what comfort you may expect, to support 
you under them. 

Now I must mention the melancholy 
part ; namely, that I am going from you, 
and that great temptations will befall you 
in my absence : this, indeed, ye readily 
apprehend, and suffer your hearts to be 
overwhelmed with grief at the thoughts of 
it. But the comfortable part of my dis- 
course, namely, that my departure is only 
in order to return to Him that sent me, and 
that I will soon after send you the Holy 
Spirit, and the other advantages that will 
thence result to you, are neither considered, 
nor are you solicitous about them. Ne- 
vertheless, if ye will listen, I will plainly 
tell you the truth. Ye are so far from hav- 
ing reason to be dejected at the thoughts 
of my departure, that, on the contrary, it 
is really profitable and expedient for you 
that I should now depart : for such is the 
order and dispensation of Providence to- 
wards you, and the appointment of my 
Father's eternal and all-wise counsel, that 
before I go and take possession of my 



JESUS CHRIST. 239 

kingdom, the Comforter, which is the 
Holy Spirit, cannot be sent unto you , but 
when I am departed from you, and have 
all power in heaven and in earth commit- 
ted unto me, then I will send him unto you. 
And when he cometh, he shall abundantly 
support and comfort you under all your 
troubles ; shall powerfully plead your 
cause against your adversaries ; and shall, 
with wonderful efficacy, cause the doctrine 
of the gospel to spread and prevail in the 
world, against all opposition. He shall, 
particularly, and in the most extraordinary 
and convincing manner, make the world 
sensible of the greatness and heinousness 
of a sin of which they were not aware ; of 
the righteousness and justice of a dispen- 
sation they did not understand ; and of 
the execution of a most remarkable judg- 
ment they did not expect. 

First, by wonderfully attesting and con- 
firming the truth of my doctrine, by the 
gift of tongues, and other wonderful signs, 
he shall convince the world of the greatness 
and heinousness of their sin in disbelieving 
and rejecting me. 

Secondly, by demonstrating that my de- 
parture out of the world was not perishing 
and dying, but only a returning to my Fa- 
ther, in order to be invested with all power 
both in heaven and earth, he shall convince 
the world of the righteousness and justice 
of my cause, and of the excellency of that 
dispensation which I preach and declare to 
mankind. 

Lastly, by mightily destroying the power 
of the devil and the dominion of sin, and 
propagating the doctrine of true religion 
in the world with wonderful efficacy and 
success, he shall convince men of my 
power and authority to execute judgment 
upon mine enemies, for the establishment 
of my kingdom upon earth. 

There are yet many other things here- 
after 



240 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



after to be done, in relation to the settling 
and establishing of my church, which, if 
it were proper, I would now acquaint you 
with ; but ye are not yet prepared to un- 
derstand and receive them. 

Howbeit, when the Spirit of truth, whom 
I promised you, is come, he shall enlarge 
your understandings, remove your preju- 
dices, and instruct you in all necessary and 
divine truths, to enable you to go through 
that great work which I have begun in 
person, and which I will carry on by your 
ministry; for the Spirit is not to begin any 
new work, or to found any new doctrine 
of himself. But as I have taught, and 
will teach you, only in my Father's name : 
so the Spirit shall instruct you only in 
mine and my Father's will, and in things 
necessary to promote and carry on the same 
design. 

Every thing that he does shall be only in 
order to manifest my glory, and establish 
my religion in the world ; even as every 
thing that I have done has been only to 
manifest my Father's glory, and reveal his 
will to mankind. For as all that I have 
taught is only what I received from my 
Father, so all that the Spirit shall teach 
you is only what he receives from me. 

Whatsoever, I say, the Spirit shall teach 
you is only what he receives from me: for 
receiving from my Father, I call receiving 
from me ; and teaching his will, is teach- 
ing mine ; seeing all things that the Father 
hath are common to me, and all power and 
dominion by him committed to me. 

And now be careful to remember what 
matter for comfort I have given you, and 
support yourselves with it under the ap- 
proaching distress. It is now, indeed, but 
a very little while before I shall be taken 
away from you ; nevertheless, let not this 
cause you to despair; for, after I am de- 
parted, it will be also a little while before 



I appear to you again ; forasmuch as my 
being taken away from you is not perishing, 
but only returning to my Father. 

At these last words of Jesus, the dis- 
ciples were greatly disturbed and troubled, 
not understanding his true meaning, that 
in a very short time he should be taken 
from them by death; and that after hav- 
ing overcome death, by a glorious resur- 
rection, he would appear to them again, 
before his ascension into heaven. Not un- 
derstanding this, I say, they inquired one 
of another, What can he mean, by telling 
us that in a very little time he shall be 
taken out of our sight; and that in a very 
little time more we shall see him again, 
and this because he goeth to the Father? 
We cannot understand the meaning of all 
this. 

Jesus observing their perplexity, and 
knowing that they were desirous of asking 
him, replied, Why are ye thus disturbed 
and perplexed about what I told you? Is 
it a thing so very hard to be understood, 
that I said, within a very little time I 
should be taken away from you, and that 
within a very little time more I should 
appear to you again? Verily, verily, I tell 
you, I must very soon depart out of this 
world. Then the world, who are your ene- 
mies, will rejoice and triumph over you, 
as if they had destroyed me, and wholly 
suppressed you; and ye, for your parts, 
will be overwhelmed with grief and sorrow. 
But within a short time I will return to you 
again, and then your sorrow shall be turned 
into exceeding great joy. 

Even as a woman when she is in labour 
hath great pain and sorrow, for the present, 
but as soon as she is delivered forgets all 
her sufferings, and rejoices greatly at the 
birth of her son ; so ye, while ye are under 
the immediate apprehensions of my de- 
parture from you, and during that time of 

distress 



AND SAVIOUR, 

distress and temptation which shall befall 
you in my absence, will be full of sorrow 
and anxiety of mind : but when I return 
to you again, then shall ye rejoice with 
joy unspeakable and full of glory, and no 
power or malice of man shall ever be able 
to take from you any more the cause or con- 
tinuance of it 

But though I shall return to you again, 
and your hearts will thereupon be filled 
with inexpressible joy, and which never 
shall be taken from you any more ; yet 
there will be no necessity that I should 
then continue long with you in person, to 
instruct you upon every occasion, as I 
have now done with my own mouth. For 
besides that the Holy Spirit will be sent 
to instruct you in all things necessary, my 
Father himself also will hear your peti- 
tions, and be ready to grant you whatso- 
ever you shall desire of him in my name, 
as being my disciples. 

Hitherto ye have asked nothing of God 
in my name : but from henceforth put up 
your petitions in my name; and whatso- 
ever ye shall so ask, for the glory of God, 
and in order to enable you to go through 
the work of your ministry successfully, 
shall certainly be granted you: that your 
joj r , which will begin at my appearing to 
you again after my death, may be com- 
pleted by the wonderful success and effi- 
cacy of your own ministry. 

These things I have told you at present 
imperfectly and obscurely, according as 
your capacities are able to bear them. 
But the time is coming when I will speak 
to you with more openness, freedom, and 
plainness, the whole will of my Father 
concerning the nature and establishment 
of my kingdom, and what things and in 
what manner ye ought to pray unto him 
for. 

At that time ye shall with firm assur- 



JESUS CHRIST. 241 

I ance pray to my Father in my name for 
what ye want. And I need not tell you, 
that I will intercede with the Father on 
your behalf ; for beside the love he has 
borne for me, and the power and autho- 
rity my prayers have with him, he has 
moreover of himself a great love for you, 
and a ready disposition to grant your 
prayers, because ye are become grateful and 
acceptable to him, by your love towards 
me, which ye have shewn in embracing wil- 
lingly that holy doctrine which I have re- 
vealed to you from him. 

To conclude: the sum of what I have 
told you is briefly and plainly this; I came 
down from heaven from God my Father, 
and have lived upon earth in the state of 
frail and mortal man, that I might reveal 
to mankind the will of my heavenly Fa- 
ther, and the way to attain eternal life and 
happiness ; and now, having finished this 
great work, I am about to leave this world, 
and return again to my Father, from 
whence I at first came. 

These last w r ords of Jesus being more 
plain and express than any he had before 
spoken, so that now the disciples clearly 
perceived that the departure he had so 
often mentioned was no other than his 
actual going out of this world ; they re- 
plied, Now, Lord, you speak plainly, and 
without any figure; so that we apprehend 
fully what you mean. And now that our 
curiosity is satisfied, you have likewise 
greatly confirmed our faith ; having given 
us a certain token whereby we are assured 
that you know all things, even the hearts 
and secret thoughts of men ; since you 
have answered us a question which gave 
us great perplexity, and were desirous to 
ask your opinion, but were afraid; but now 
we are convinced that you are endued with 
a truly divine power, and did indeed come 
forth from God. To which Jesus answered, 

3 P And 



242 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



And do you now at length firmly believe 
in me ? Are ye resolved to continue sted- 
fast in this faith ? Do you think yourselves 
able to persevere immoveably in the pro- 
fession of it? Be not confident of your own 
strength; but pray that ye may be delivered 
from temptation in the time of distress, 
such as will come upon you much sooner 
than ye expect. For I tell you that ye 
will all of you within a few hours utterly 
forsake me, and fly, in hopes to secure 
3^ourselves, leaving me alone. And yet I 
should not say alone, since my Father is 
with me, who is more than all. I have, 
therefore, acquainted you with these things 
beforehand, that your minds may be fur- 
nished with sufficient matter of comfort 
and strength to bear up under all tempta- 
tions, from the consideration of my having 
foretold both what distress will befall you, 
and how ye shall terminate your victory 
over all your enemies. You must, indeed, 
expect to meet with much affliction, but 
let not this discourage you, I have sub- 
dued the world ; follow my example, and 
partake of my reward. 

Having thus finished his discourse, Jesus 
lifted up his eyes to heaven, and prayed with 
great fervency to his Father : (the prayer 
itself is recorded in the seventeenth chapter 
of John;) the substance and import of it as 
follows : " O Almighty Father, now the 
time of my suffering, for which I was sent 
into the world, is arrived ; I entreat thee, 
support me under it, and make me triumph 
over death by a glorious resurrection, and 
ascension into heaven ; that by these means 
the glory may redound to thee, and cause 
thy will to be believed and obeyed through 
all the world, to the salvation of mankind ; 
according to the full intent of that office 
and power with which thou didst origi- 
nally invest me. In order to the bringing 
about this great design of salvation, I have 



declared thy will to mankind ; I have 
published thy precepts, and discharged 
the great mission entrusted to me ; I have 
preached thy doctrine of repentance to sal- 
vation, and have finished the work which 
thou sentest me to do, to the glory of thy 
name upon earth ; and now, to complete 
the great design, do thou, O Almighty 
Father, likewise glorify me with thine own 
self. Support me under my sufferings : let 
me prevail and triumph over death, by a 
glorious resurrection, and exalt me again 
to the same glory in heaven which I had 
with thee before the creation of the uni- 
verse. I have manifested thy will to the 
disciples, the men that thou gavest me out 
of the world; to those persons thou didst 
in thine infinite wisdom appoint that thy 
truth should be made known. Therefore 
to them I have revealed the mysteries of 
thy kingdom, the precepts of thy gospel, 
and the doctrine of thy salvation. 

"And this doctrine they have willingly 
embraced, stedfastly adhered to, and sin- 
cerely obeyed: as they are fully satisfied 
and convinced that what I taught them, as 
from thee, was really a divine doctrine, 
taught by thine immediate appointment 
and command ; and that I did not preach 
any human invention or institution of men, 
but was really sent by thy divine authority 
and commission. 

" For these persons, therefore, I now 
pray, that as thou hast begun the work of 
their salvation, by my preaching and re- 
vealing to them thy will, while I have 
been present with them here upon earth ; 
so also that thou wouldest preserve them, 
when I am departed from this world, and 
complete the work of their redemption by 
my resurrection, and ascension into heaven 
after my death. I do not pray for the un- 
believing impenitent world, but for those 
who have embraced that most holy doc- 
trine, 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



243 



trine, which thou hast taught them through 
me by my preaching ; for those who have 
glorified, and will glorify, my name by their 
ministry, and who consequently are to be 
esteemed as thine own, in common with 
me. I am now about to leave the world, 
in order to return to thee : but these my 
disciples, who shall continue after me, I 
recommend to thy divine protection when 
I shall be gone : endue them with powers 
to persevere in preaching and practising 
the truth, and to deliver the same holy 
doctrines which I have given to them, that 
so they may remain inseparably united to 
me, as I am to thee. So long as I have 
been with them in the world, I have watch- 
ed over them, and kept them from falling 
away, both by example, preaching, and 
continual admonition, according to the 
power and authority which thou didst 
commit to me ; nor has any one of my 
apostles miscarried under my care, except 
that perfidious traitor, who, as the scriptures 
foretold, has ungratefully conspired with 
my enemies to destroy me, and will perish 
according to his deserts. While I have 
continued with my disciples, I have watch- 
ed over them, and preserved them under 
mine own eye ; but now, as I am going to 
leave the world, I beseech thee to keep and 
assist them by thy good Spirit, and let the 
expectation of their continuing under thy 
special care and protection, be their com- 
fort and support in my absence. The 
world, indeed, will persecute and hate 
them on this account, as my doctrine is re- 
pugnant to the lusts and affections, the 
passions, designs, and inclinations, of world- 
ly men ; it must necessarily be that the vi- 
cious and incorrigible world will oppose and 
persecute them, as it has before persecuted 
me. 1 beseech thee, therefore, to take them 
under thy particular care, to support them 
against the violence and oppression of an 



evil w r orld. I do not desire that thou 
shoulclest take them out of the world, but 
preserve them in it, to be instruments of 
thy word, thy glory, and to be teachers of 
thy truth ; nor suffer them to be either de- 
stroyed by the malice and violence, or cor- 
rupted by the evil customs and opinions, 
of a perverse and wicked generation. 

" They are of a temper and spirit very 
different from the current affections and 
common dispositions of the world, accord- 
ing to the example of purity which I have 
set before them. Do thou preserve and 
increase in them that moderation and can- 
dour of mind, cause them to be thoroughly 
affected and impressed with that true doc- 
trine so frequently recommended to them 
from my mouth, so as to express it visibly 
in their lives and practice, and to promote 
it zealously in their preaching, that they 
may both by their word and good example 
become worthy and successful ministers of 
my gospel. 

" For as thou hast sent me into the 
world to reveal thy will to mankind, so 
send I these my apostles to continue 
preaching the same doctrine begun by me. 
And the principal design of my exemplary 
life, constant teaching, and now voluntary 
offering of myself to death, is to atone 
for sins, and enable these my servants to 
preach my doctrines with success and effi- 
cacy for the salvation of men. Neither 
pray I for these my apostles only, but for 
all others who shall, by their preaching 
and practice, promote thy true religion ; 
and being converted from the world, may, 
by their sincere endeavours, go on to re- 
form others, convincing the world of the 
excellency of their religion, and conse- 
quently enforcing men to acknowledge the 
truth and divine authority thereof. For 
promoting which great end, I have com- 
municated to my apostles the same power 



244 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



and authority of doing mighty works for 
the confirmation of their doctrine, and the 
evidence of thy truth, as thou didst com- 
municate to me ; that so I working in 
them, as thou hast done in me, and thus 
confirmed with great efficacy and demon- 
stration of the Spirit, they may declare the 
same doctrine which I published in per- 
son : the world may, by this evidence, be 
convinced that I was really sent by thee, 
and that my disciples act by the same di- 
vine commission. 

"Holy and Almighty Father, all those 
whom thou hast given me, who have hear- 
tily embraced my doctrine, and sincerely 
obeyed it, I desire that thou woulclest 
make them partakers of the same happi- 
ness with myself, and exalt them to behold 
the incomprehensible glory which I had 
with thee, in thy eternal love, before the 
foundation of the world. The generality 
of mortals, O righteous Father! have not 
known thee, nor been willing to embrace 
and obey the revelation of thy will. But 
I have known thy will, and have made it 
known to my disciples, men of simplicity 
and honesty; and they have embraced and 
obej^ed it. And I will continually make it 
known to them more and more, that they 
may grow up and improve in faith, in ho- 
liness, and in all good works, so as finally 
to arrive, and cause others to arrive, at that 
eternal happiness which is the effect of thy 
infinite love towards me, and through me 
towards them." 

This pious and benevolent prayer being- 
ended, Jesus and his disciples came down 
from the mount of Olives, into a field be- 
low, called Gethsemane, through which 
the brook Cedron ran, and in it, on the 
other side of the brook, was a garden, 
called the Garden of Gethsemane. Here 
he desired his disciples to sit down, till he 
should retire to pray, taking with him 



Peter, James, and John, those three select 
disciples, whom he had before chosen to 
be witnesses of his transfiguration, and 
now to be eye-witnesses of his passion, 
leaving the other disciples at the garden- 
door, to watch the approach of Judas and 
his band. 

The sufferings he was on the point of 
undergoing were so great, that the very 
prospect of them excited this doleful ex- 
clamation : My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 
even unto death ; tarry ye here, and watch. 
On this great occasion he sustained those 
grievous sorrows in his soul, by which, as 
well as by dying on the cross, he became a 
sin-offering, and accomplished the redemp- 
tion of mankind. 

He now withdrew from them about a 
stone's cast, and his human nature being 
overburdened beyond measure, he found 
it necessary to retire and pray, that if it 
was possible, or consistent with the salva- 
tion of the world, he might be delivered 
from the sufferings which were then lying 
on him. It was not the fear of dying on 
the cross, which made him speak or pray 
in such a manner. To suppose this, would 
infinitely degrade his character. Make 
his sufferings as terrible as possible, clothe 
them with all the agoravatino; circum- 
stances of distress ; yet the blessed Jesus, 
whose human nature was strengthened by 
being connected with the divine, could 
not but shrink at the prospect of such suf- 
ferings as he had to endure. He addresses 
his divine Father with a sigh of fervent 
wishes, that the cup might, if possible, be 
removed from him. In the Greek it is, O 
that thou zvouldest remove this cup from me ! 
And having first kneeled and prayed, he 
fell prostrate on his face, accompanying 
his address with due expressions of resig- 
nation, adding immediately, Not as I will, 
hut as thou wilt. 

Having 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



24.5 



Having prayed, he returned to his dis- 
ciples, and finding them asleep, he said to 
Peter, Simon, sleepest thou ? couldest thou not 
natch one hour ? Thou, who so lately didst 
boast of thy courage and constancy in my 
service, canst thou so soon forget thy 
Master? 

But in his great distress he never lost 
sight of that kind concern he had for his 
disciples. Watch ye, says he, and pray, lest 
ye enter into temptation. Neither was he, on 
those extraordinary occasions, in the least 
chagrined with the offences which they 
had committed through frailty and human 
weakness : on the contrar}^ he was always 
willing to make excuses for them; alledg- 
ing in their defence, that the spirit truly 
was willing, but the flesh was weak. It seems, 
from these particulars, that he spent some 
considerable time in his addresses; because 
his disciples fell asleep in his absence, and 
he himself retired again to pray ; for the 
sorrows of our Lord continuing to increase 
upon him, affected him to such a degree, 
that he retired a second time, and prayed 
to the same purpose, saying, O my Father, 
if this cup may not pass away from me, except 
I drink it, thy will be done : after which he 
returned again to them, and found them 
asleep, for their eyes were heavy. 

He returned thus frequently to his dis- 
ciples, that they, by reading his distress in 
his countenance and gesture, might be wit- 
nesses of his passion; which proves that his 
pains were beyond description intense and 
complicated : for he went away the third 
time to pray, and notwithstanding an an- 
gel was sent from heaven to comfort and 
strengthen him, yet they overwhelmed 
him, and threw him into an agony; upon 
which he still continued to pray more 
earnestly. 

But the sense of his sufferings still in- 
creasing, they strained his whole body to 



so violent a degree, that his blood, as it 
were, was pressed through the pores of his 
skin, which it pervaded, together with his 
sweat, and fell down in large drops on the 
ground. And he left them, and went away 
again. And there appeared an angel unto 
him from heaven, strengthening him. And 
being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly : 
and his sweat was as it were great drops of 
blood falling down to the ground. Thus did 
he suffer unspeakable sorrows in his soul, 
as long- as the Divine Wisdom thought 
proper. 

At length he obtained relief, being heard 
on account of his perfect and entire sub- 
mission to the will of his heavenly Father. 
And when he rose up from prayer, and was 
come to his disciples, he found them sleeping 
for sorrow. This circumstance shews how- 
much the disciples were affected with their 
Master's sufferings. The sensations of grief 
which they felt on seeing his unspeakable 
distress, so overpowered them, that they 
sunk into a sleep. 

Our blessed Saviour, for the last time, 
came to his disciples, and seeing them still 
asleep, he said, Sleep on now, and take your 
rest ; behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son 
of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 
Rise, let lis be going; behold, he is at hand 
that doth betray me, Matt. xxvi. 45, &c. 
The event will soon be over which causes 
your sorrow : I am betrayed, and ready 
to be delivered unto death. 

CHAP. XXXIV. 

The blessed Redeemer is taken by a band of 
Soldiers, at the information of the Traitor 
Judas. — Heals a Wound given the High- 
priest's Servant by Simon Peter. 

UDAS, who had often resorted to the 
garden of Gethsemane, with the dis- 
3 Q ciples 




246 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



ciples of our Lord, knowing the spot, and 
the usual time of his Master's repairing 
thither, informed the chief priests and 
elders that the proper time for apprehend- 
ing Jesus was now come. They therefore 
sent a band of soldiers with him, and ser- 
vants carrying lanterns and torches to shew 
them the way ; because, though it was 
always full-moon at the passover, the sky 
might be dark with clouds, and the place 
whither they were going was shaded with 
trees. At the same time a deputation of 
their number accompanied the band, to 
see that every one did his duty. 

Judas having thus received a band of 
men and officers from the chief priests and 
Pharisees, they went thither with lanterns, 
and torches, and weapons ; for they were 
exceeding anxious to secure and get him 
into their hands; and the soldiers having, 
perhaps, never seen Jesus before, found it 
necessary that Judas should distinguish 
him, and point him out to them by some 
particular sign. 

The treacherous Judas went before the 
band, at a small distance, to prepare them 
for the readier execution of their office, by 
kissing his master, which was the token 
agreed upon, that they might not mistake 
him, and seize a wrong person. And he 
that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went 
before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss 
him. Stung with remorse at the horrid 
engagement into which he had entered, 
and not being now able to retract from the 
execution of it, he determined to make use 
of art in his vile proceedings, and weakly 
imagined he could deceive him whom he 
was about to beiray, on a supposition that 
when he should give the kiss, it might be 
considered by his Master as a singular mark 
of his affection. When, therefore, they ap- 
proached near the spot, Judas (who w T as at 
the head of the band) suddenly ran for- 



ward, and coming up to Jesus, said, Hail, 
Master! and kissed him. And Jesus said 
unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come ? 
Betray est thou the Son of man with a hiss ? 
Before, however, Judas could make any 
reply, the band (who had fixed their eyes 
on the person he had kissed) arrived im- 
mediately, and surrounded Jesus. 

The artifice and wicked designs of the 
base and perfidious Judas are here mani- 
festly displayed. In order to conceal his 
villany from his Master and his disciples, 
he walked hastily; and, without waiting 
for the band, went up directly and saluted 
him ; wishing, perhaps, to have that con- 
sidered as a token of apprising him of his 
danger. But Jesus did not fail to convince 
him that he knew the meaning and intent 
of his salutation, saying, Betrayest thou the 
Son of man with a kiss? Judas certainty 
concealed his treachery so well that Peter 
did not suspect him, or it is probable he 
would have struck at him rather than at 
Malchus, the high-priest's servant. 

The appointed time of our Lord's suffer- 
ings being now come, he did not, as for- 
merly, avoid his enemies; but, on the con- 
trary, on their telling him they sought 
Jesus of Nazareth, he replied, I am he ; 
thereby intimating to them, that he was 
willing to put himself into their hands. 
At the same time, to shew them that they 
could not apprehend him without his own 
consent, he, in an extraordinary manner, 
exerted his divine power ; he made the 
whole band fall back, and threw them to 
the ground. Jesus, therefore, knowing all 
things that should come upon him, went forth, 
and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They 
answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said 
unto them, I am he. And Judas also, who 
betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then 
as he had said unto them, I am he, they went 
bachrard, and fell to the ground. But the 

soldiers 



AND SAVIOUR, 

soldiers and the Jews, imagining perhaps 
that they had been thrown down by some 
demon or evil spirit, with whom the Jews 
said he was in confederacy, advanced to- 
wards him a second time. Then asked he 
them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, 
Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have 
told you that I am he ; expressing again his 
willingness to fall into their hands. If, 
therefore, ye seek me, let these go their way. 
If your business be with me alone, suffer 
my disciples to pass : for the party had 
surrounded them also. He seems to have 
made this request to the soldiers, that the 
saying might be fulfilled which he spake, 
Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none. 
For as he always proportioned the trials of 
nis people to their strength ; so here he 
took care that the disciples should escape 
the storm, which none but himself could 
sustain. 

At length, one of the soldiers, more 
daring than the rest, rudely caught Jesus 
and bound him ; upon which Peter drew 
his sword, and smote off the ear of the 
high-priest's servant, who probably was 
shewing greater forwardness than the rest 
in this business. Then Simon Peter, having 
a sword, drew it, and smote the high-priest's 
servant, and cut off his light ear ; the ser- 
vant's name was Malchus. The enraged 
disciple was on the point of singly attack- 
ing the whole band, when Jesus ordered 
him to sheathe his sword; telling him, that 
his unseasonable and imprudent defence 
might prove the occasion of his destruc- 
tion. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up 
again thy sword into his place ; for all they 
that take the sword shall perish with the 
sword, Matt. xxvi. 52. He told him like- 
wise, that it implied both a distrust of God, 
who can always employ a variety of means 
for the safety of his people, and also his 
ignorance in the scriptures: Thinkest thou, 



JESUS CHRIST. 247 

said he, that I cannot now pray to my Fa- 
ther, and he shall presently give me more than 
twelve legions of angels ? But how then shall 
the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? 
Matt. xxvi. 53. 

The word legion was a Roman military 
term, being a name which they gave to a 
body of five or six thousand men ; where- 
fore, in regard that the band, which now 
surrounded them, was a Roman cohort, 
our Lord might make use of this term, by 
way of contrast, to shew what an incon- 
siderable thing the cohort was, in compa- 
rison of the force he could summon to his 
assistance; more than twelve legions, not 
of soldiers, but of angels. He yet was 
tenderly inclined to prevent any bad con- 
sequences which might have followed from 
Peter's rashness, by healing the servant, 
and adding, in his rebuke to him, a de- 
claration of his willingness to suffer. The 
cup which my Father hath given me, shall I 
not drink it ? 

The circumstance of his healing the ear 
of Malchus by touching it, evidently im- 
plies that no wound or distemper was in- 
curable in the hand of Jesus ; neither was 
any injury so great that he could not for- 
give. It seems somewhat surprising that 
this evident miracle did not make an im- 
pression upon the chief priests, especially 
as our Lord put them in mind, at the same 
time, of his other miracles; for having first 
said, Suffer ye thus far; — and he touched his 
ear, and healed him: he added, Be ye come 
out as against a thief, with swords and staves? 
When I was daily with you in the temple, ye 
stretched forth no hands against me: but this 
is your hour and the power of darkness. 
Luke xxi. 51, &c. The priests had kept 
at a distance for some time, but drew near 
when they understood that Jesus was in 
their power ; for they were proof against 
all conviction, being obstinately bent on 

putting 



248 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



putting him to death. And the disciples, 
when they saw their Master in the hands 
of his enemies, forsook him, and fled, ac- 
cording to his prediction; notwithstanding 
they might have followed him without any 
danger, as the priests had no design 
against them. Then all the disciples forsook 
him, and fled. Then the band, and the captain 
and officers, took Jesus, and bound him. But 
it was not the cord which held him ; his 
infinite love was by far the stronger bond. 
He could have broken those weak ties, and 
exerted his divinity in a more wonderful 
manner ; he could have stricken them all 
dead, with as much ease as he had before 
thrown them on the ground : but he pa- 
tiently submitted to this, as to every other 
indignity which they chose to offer him ; 
so meek was he under the greatest injuries. 
Having thus secured him, they led him 
away. And there followed him a certain 
young man, having a linen cloth cast about 
his naked body ; and the young men laid hold 
on him : and he left the linen cloth, and fled 
from them naked. This, perhaps, was the pro- 
prietor of the garden; who being awakened 
by the noise, came out with the linen cloth, 
in which he had been lying, cast round 
his naked body ; and having a respect for 
Jesus, followed him, forgetting the dress he 
was in. 

They first led Jesus to Annas, father-in- 
law of Caiaphas, who was the high-priest 
that year. Annas having himself dis- 
charged the office of high-priest, was con- 
sequently a person of distinguished cha- 
racter, which, together with his relation 
to the high-priest, made him worthy of 
the respect they now paid him. But 
he refused, singly, to meddle in the 
affair ; they, therefore, carried Jesus to 
Caiaphas himself, at whose palace the 
chief priests, elders, and scribes, were as- 
sembled, having staid there all night to see 



the issue of their stratagem. This Caia- 
phas was he that advised the council to 
put Jesus to death, even admitting he was 
innocent, for the safety of the whole Jew- 
ish nation. He seems to have enjoyed the 
sacerdotal dignity during the whole course 
of Pilate's government in Judea ; for 
he w r as advanced by Valerius Graccus, 
Pilate's predecessor, and was divested of 
it by Vitellius, governor of Syria, after 
he had deposed Pilate from his procura- 
torship. 

CHAP. XXXV. 

Fulfilment of our Lord's Prediction concerning 
Peter. 

HE apprehending of their dear Mas- 
ter could not but strike his disciples 
with horror and amazement : though he 
had forewarned them of that event, such 
was their consternation, that they fled dif- 
ferent ways; some of them, however, re- 
covering out of the panic that had seized 
them, followed the band at a distance, to see 
what the issue would be. Of this numbei 
was Peter, and another disciple, whom 
John has mentioned without giving his 
name, and who therefore is supposed to 
have been John himself. This disciple 
being acquainted at the high-priest's, got 
admittance for himself first, and soon 
after for Peter, who had come with him. 
And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so 
did another disciple. That disciple was known 
unto the high-priest, and zvent in with Jesus 
into the palace of the high-priest. But Pe- 
ter stood at the door without. Then went 
out that other disciple zehich was known unto 
the high-priest, and spake unto them that 
kept the door, and brought in Peter. And 
when they had kindled a fire in the midst of 
the hall, and were set down together, Peter 
sat down among them. The maid-servant, 
who kept the door, concluding Peter 

to 




AND SAVIOUR, 

to be a disciple also, followed him after 
to the fire, and looking earnestly at him, 
charged him with the supposed crime. 
Then saith the damsel that kept the door 
unto Peter, Art thou not also one of this 
mans disciples? This blunt attack threw 
Peter into such confusion, that he flatly 
denied his having any connection with 
Jesus ; replying, I am not, and adding, 
I know not, neither understand I what thou 
say est. As if lie had said, I do not under- 
stand any reason for your asking me such 
a question. 

Thus the very apostle, who had before 
acknowledged his Master to be the Mes- 
siah, the Son of the living God, and had 
so confidently boasted of his fortitude and 
firm attachment to him in the greatest dan- 
gers, proved himself an arrant deserter of 
his cause upon trial. His shameful fears 
were altogether inexcusable, as the enemy 
who attacked him was one of the weaker 
sex, and the terror of the charge was in a 
great measure taken off by the insinuation 
made in it, that John was likewise known 
to be Christ's disciple; for as he was known 
at the high-priest's, he was consequently 
known in that character. Art thou not also 
one of this mans disciples? Art thou not 
one of them, as well as he who is sitting 
with you? Nothing can account for this 
conduct of Peter, but the confusion and 
panic which had seized him on this occa- 
sion. As his inward perturbation must 
have appeared in his countenance and ges- 
ture, he did not choose to stay long with 
the servants at the fire. He went out 
therefore, into the porch, where he was a 
little concealed. And he went into the porch: 
after he had been some time there, another 
maid saw him, and began to say to them that 
stood by, This is one of them : and again he 
denied with an oath, . I do not know the 
man; adding perjury to falsehood. 



JESUS CHRIST. 249 

After Peter had been thus attacked with- 
out doors, he thought proper to return, and 
mix with the crowd at the fire. And Simon 
Peter stood and warmed himself. From this 
circumstance, it is clear, that the ensuing 
was the third denial ; and that Peter left 
the porch, where the second denial hap- 
pened, and was come again into the hall. 
Here one of the servants of the high-priest 
( being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut of ,) 
saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with 
him ? Peter then denied again, and immediately 
the cock crew. The words of Malchus's 
kinsman bringing to Peter's remembrance 
what he had done to that man, threw him 
into such a panic, that when those that 
stood by repeated the charge, he impu- 
dently denied it : Pie even began to curse and 
to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom 
you speak. For when they heard Peter deny 
the charge, they supported it by an argu- 
ment drawn from the accent with which 
he pronounced his answer. Surely thou 
art one of them ; for thou art a Galilean, 
and thy speech agreeth thereto : so that 
being pressed on all sides, to give his lie the 
better colour, he profaned the name of 
God, by imprecating the bitterest curses 
on himself, if he was telling a falsehood. 
Perhaps he hoped, by these acts of impiety, 
to convince them effectually that he was not 
a disciple of the holy Jesus. 

Thus the apostle denied his Master three 
distinct times, with oaths and asseverations, 
totally forgetting the vehement protesta- 
tions he had made, a few hours before, that 
he would never deny him. He was, pro- 
bably, permitted to fall in this manner, to 
teach us two lessons : first, that the strong- 
est resolutions, formed in our own strength, 
cannot withstand the torrent of temptation; 
secondly, that the true disciples of Christ, 
though they fall, may be brought to a con- 
viction of their sin; for he no sooner de- 

3 R nied 



250 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



nied his Master the third time, than the 
cock crew, and first awakened in him a 
consciousness of his sin. And the Lord 
turned, and looked vpon Peter: and Peter 
remembered the words of the Lord, how he 
had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou 
shah deny me thrice. And Peter went out, 
and wept bitterly. St. Luke is the evange- 
list who particularly mentions this beau- 
tiful circumstance of Christ turning and 
looking on Peter. The members of the 
council who sat on Jesus were placed at 
the upper end of the hall ; at the other 
were the servants, with Peter at the fire; 
so that Jesus being, probabty, placed on 
some eminence, that his judges, who were 
numerous, might see and hear him, could 
easily look over towards Peter, and observe 
him denying him, and in passionate terms, 
loud enough to be heard, perhaps, over all 
the place. The look pierced him, and, 
with the crowing of the cock, brought his 
Master's prediction fresh into his mind. 
He was stung with deep remorse, and, be- 
ing unable to contain himself, he covered 
his face with his garment, to conceal the 
confusion he was in, and, going out into the 
porch, wept very bitterly. All this passed 
while the priests examined Jesus with 
man}'- taunts and revilings; and while the 
most zealous of Christ's disciples was de- 
nying him with oaths and imprecations, 
the people insulted him in the most inhu- 
man manner. Thus a complication of in- 
juries, insults, and indignities, was at one 
time heaped upon the blessed Redeemer, 
the meek and mild Jesus, in order to fulfil 
the prophecies concerning him, and teach 
his followers a lesson of humility. 

CHAP. XXXVI. 

The Saviour of the World is arraigned at the 
Bar of the Sanhedrim, and tried by the 
Jewish Council. 



HEN the band of soldiers arrived 
at the high-priest's with Jesus, they 
found there all the chief priests, the scribes, 
and the elders, assembled. And as soon as 
it was day, the elders of the people, and the 
chief priests, and the scribes, came together, 
and led him into their council. And the high- 
priest asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his 
doctrine. He inquired of him what his dis- 
ciples were — for what end he had gathered 
them — whether it was to make himself a 
kins; — and what the doctrine was which 
he taught them. In these questions there 
was a great deal of art; for as the crime 
laid to our Saviour's charge was, that he 
had set up for the Messiah, and deluded 
the people, they expected he would claim 
that dignity in their presence, and so 
would, on his own confession, have con- 
demned him without any farther progress. 
This was unfair, as it was artful and ensnar- 
ing. To oblige a prisoner on his trial to 
confess what might take away his life, was 
a very iniquitous method of proceeding; 
and Jesus expressed his opinion thereof 
with very good reason, and complained of 
it, bidding them prove what they had laid 
to his charge by witnesses. Jesus answei^ed 
him, L spake openly to the world: I ever 
taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, 
whither the Jews always resort; and in secret 
have J said nothing. Why askest thou me? 
ask them which heard me, what I have said 
unto them: behold, they know what I said. 
It was greatly to the honour of our blessed 
Redeemer, that all his actions were done 
in public, under the eye even of his ene- 
mies ; because, had he been carrying on 
any imposture, the lovers of goodness and 
truth had thus abundant opportunities of 
detecting him with propriety : he there- 
fore, in his defence, appealed to that part 
of his character; but his answer was con- 
strued to be disrespectful ; for when he haa 

thu 




AND SAVIOUR, 

thus spoken, one of the office?^ which stood by 
struck Jesus zcith the palm of his hand, saying, 
Answerest thou the high-priest so ? To which 
he meekly replied, with the greatest sere- 
nity, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the 
evil: but if well, why smitest thou me ? Shew 
me, prove before this court, wherein my 
crime consists, or record it on the evidence 
on the face of my trial ; which if you can- 
not, how can you answer this inhuman 
treatment to a defenceless prisoner, stand- 
ing on his trial before the world, and in 
open court? 

Thus Jesus became an example of his 
own precept, If hosoever shall smite thee on 
thy right cheek, turn to him the other also, 
Matt. v. 39- bearing the greatest injuries 
with a patience that could not be pro- 
voked. 

When the council found that Jesus de- 
clined answering the questions, whereby 
they expected to have drawn from him an 
acknowledgment of his being the Messiah, 

O O 7 

they proceeded to examine many witnesses, 
to prove his having assumed that charac- 
ter ; as they considered such a pretension 
as blasphemy in his mouth, who being 
only a man, according to their opinion, 
could not, without the highest affront of 
the divine Majesty, pretend to the title of 
the Son of God, as it belonged only to the 
Messiah. 

But in this examination they acted like 
interested and enraged persecutors, rather 
than as impartial judges, forming their 
questions in the most artful manner, in 
order, if possible, to draw expressions from 
him, which they might pervert into suspi- 
cions of guilt, as some foundation for con- 
demning Jesus, who had so long and faith- 

O 7 O 

tally laboured for their salvation. 

Their witnesses, however, disappointed 
them; some of them disagreeing in their 
story, and others mentioning things of no 



JESUS CHRIST 251 

manner of importance. At last, two per- 
sons agreed in their depositions, namely, 
in hearing him say, that he was able to 
destroy the temple of God, and to raise it 
in three days. But this testimony was ab- 
solutely false; for our great Redeemer 
never said he could destroy and build the 
temple of Jerusalem in three days, as they 
affirmed. It is true, that after banishing 
the traders from the temple, when the Jews 
desired to know by what authority he un- 
dertook to make such a reformation, he 
referred them to the miracle of his resur- 
rection ; bidding them destroy this temple, 
(pointing probably to his body,) and in 
three clays he would raise it up. The wit- 
nesses, therefore, either through malice or 
ignorance, perverted his answer into an 
affirmation that he was able to destroy and 
build the magnificent temple of Jerusalem 
in three days ; and the judges considered 
this assertion as blasphemy, because^ it 
could only be done by the divine power. 

Our Saviour made no reply to the evi- 
dences that were produced against him, 
which greatly provoked the high-priest ; 
who, supposing that he intended by his 
silence to put an affront on the council, 
rose from his seat, and with great pertur- 
bation demanded the reason for so remark- 
able a conduct. Answerest thou nothing ? 
said he : What is it which these witness 
against thee ? And some of the council 
added, Art thou the Christ? To which 
our blessed Saviour answered, If I should 
tell you plainly, you would not believe 
me ; and if I should demonstrate it to you 
by the most evident and undeniable argu- 
ments, ye would neither be convinced nor 
let me go. 

The high-priest, finding all his attempts 
to trepan our Saviour in vain, said to him, 
I adjure you solemnly, by the dreadful 
and tremendous name of God, in whose 

presence 



252 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



presence you stand, that you tell me plainly 
and truly, whether you are the Messiah, the 
Son of God. 

The consequence attending the confes- 
sion of the truth, did not intimidate the 
blessed Jesus : for being adjured by the 
chief magistrate, he immediately acknow- 
ledged the charge; adding, Ye shall shortly 
see a convincing evidence of this truth, 
in that wonderful and unparalleled de- 
struction which I will send upon the 
Jewish nation ; in the quick and power- 
ful progress which the gospel shall make 
upon the earth ; and finally, in my glo- 
rious appearance in the clouds of heaven, 
at the last day, the sign you have so 
often demanded in confirmation of my 
mission. 

Upon our blessed Saviour's making this 
answer, a number of them cried out at 
once, Art thou the Son of God? To which 
our great Redeemer replied, Ye say that I 
am : a manner of speaking among the Jews, 
which expressed a plain and strong affirma- 
tion of the thing expressed. 

When the high-priest heard this second 
assertion, he rent his clothes, with great 
indignation, and said unto the council, 
Why need we trouble ourselves to seek for 
any more witnesses ? Ye yourselves, nay, 
this whole assembly, are witnesses, that he 
hath spoken manifest and notorious blas- 
phemy: What think ye ? To which they 
all replied, that for assuming to himself 
the character of the Messiah, he deserved 
to be put to death. 

Then began the servants and common 
people to fall upon him, as a man already 
condemned ; spitting upon him, buffeting 
him, and offering him all manner of rude- 
ness and indignities. They blindfolded 
him ; and some of the council, in order 
to ridicule him for having professed to be 
the great Prophet, bid him exercise his 



prophetical gift, in declaring who had smit- 
ten him. 

Such was the treatment of the Son of 
God, the Saviour of sinners, which, though 
derogatory to his character, he bore with 
patience and resignation, leaving his peo- 
ple an example to follow his steps, and 
submit to the will of God in all things, 
nor murmur at any of the dispensations of 
his providence. 

CHAP. XXXVII. 

Our blessed Saviour is carried before the Ro- 
man Governor. — Th e Traitor Judas be- 
comes his own Executioner. — Pilate pub- 
licly acquits Jesus, and refers his Case to 
the Decision of Herod. 

^HE blessed Jesus bein°; thus con- 
dernned by the unanimous voice of 



the grand assembly, it was resolved to 
carry him before the governor, that he 
likewise might pass sentence on him. 
The Roman governors of Juclea generally 
resided at Cesarea : but at the great 
feast they came up to Jerusalem, to pre- 
vent or suppress tumults, and to admi- 
nister justice; it being a custom for the 
Roman governors of provinces to visit 
the principal towns under their jurisdic- 
tion, on this latter account. Pilate being 
accordingly come to Jerusalem, some time 
before the feast, had been informed of the 
great ferment among the rulers, and the 
true character of the person on whose 
account it was raised ; for he entertained 
a just notion of it: he knew that for envy 
they had delivered him. He knew the cause 
of their envy, was impressed with a favour- 
able opinion of Jesus, and wished, if pos- 
sible, to deliver him from his vile perse- 
cutors. 

Early in the morning, the Jewish council 

brought 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



brought Jesus to the hall of judgment, or 
governor's palace. They themselves, how- 
ever, went not into the hall, but stood with- 
out, lest they should be defiled, and ren- 
dered incapable of eating the passover. 

Now Judas Iscariot, who had delivered 
his Master into the hands of the council, 
finding his project turn out very different 
from what he expected, was filled with the 
deepest remorse for what he had done. 
He saw all his golden dreams of temporal 
honours and advantages sunk at once to 
nothing; he saw his kind, his indulgent 
Master condemned, and forsaken by all 
his followers. He saw all this, and deter- 
mined to make all the satisfaction in his 
power for the crime he had committed. 

Accordingly, he came and confessed 
openly his sin, before the chief priests and 
elders, offered them the money they had 
given him to commit it, and earnestl} 7 
wished he could recall the fatal transaction 
of the preceding night. 

It seems he thought this was the most 
public testimony he could possibly give of 
his Master's innocence, and his own re- 
pentance. I have, said he, committed a 
most horrid crime, in betraying an inno- 
cent man to death. 

But this moving speech of Judas had no 
effect on the callous hearts of the Jewish 
rulers. They affirmed, that however he 
might think the prisoner innocent, and for 
that reason had sinned in bringing the sen- 
tence of death upon his head, they were 
not to blame ; because they knew him a 
blasphemer, who deserved to die. What is 
that to us? said they, see thou to that. Najr, 
they even refused to take back the money 
they had given him as a reward for perform- 
ing the base act of betraying his Master. 

The deepest remorse now seized upon 
the wretched Judas, and his soul was agi- 
tated by the horrors of despair. The inno- 



253 

cence and benevolence of his Master, the 
many favours he himself had received from 
him, and the many kind offices he had 
done for the sons and daughters of afflic- 
tion, crowded at once into his mind, and 
rendered his torments intolerable. Racked 
with those agonizing passions, and unable 
to support the misery, he threw down the 
wages of his iniquity in the temple, and 
confessing at the same time his own sin and 
the innocence of his Master, went away in 
despair, and hanged himself. 

Thus perished Judas Iscariot, the traitor, 
a miserable example of the fatal influence 
of covetousness, and a standing monument 
of divine vengeance, to deter future gene- 
rations from acting in opposition to the 
dictates of conscience, through a love of 
the things of this world ; for which this 
wretched mortal betrayed his master, his 
friend, his Saviour, and accumulated such 
a load of guilt on himself, as sunk his soul 
into the lowest pit of perdition. 

The pieces of silver cast down by Judas 
were gathered up, and delivered to the 
priests ; who thinking it unlawful to put 
them into the treasury, because they were 
the wages of a traitor, agreed to lay them 
out in purchasing the potter's field, and 
to make it a common burial-place for 
strangers. 

This the evangelist tells us was done that 
a particular prophecy, relating to the Mes- 
siah, might be fulfilled : And they took the 
thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that 
was valued, whom they of the children of 
Israel did value ; and gave them for the pot- 
ter s field, as the Lord appointed me. This 
prophecy is found in Zechariah; but, by 
a mistake of some copyist, the word Jere- 
miah is inserted in the Greek manuscripts 
of St. Matthew's Gospel; unless we sup- 
pose, with the learned Grotius, that this 
remarkable prophecy was first made by 

3 S Jeremiah, 



254 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Jeremiah, and afterwards repeated, by the 
immediate direction of the Spirit, by Ze- 
chariah ; and that, therefore, the evangelist 
has only ascribed the prophecy to its origi- 
nal author. But, however this be, the pro- 
phecy is remarkable, and was remarkably 
fulfilled. And the evangelist, by thus ap- 
pealing to a public transaction, puts the 
truth of this part of the history beyond all 
manner of exception. 

We have already observed, that the chief 
priests and elders refused to go themselves 
into the judgment-hall, lest they should 
contract some pollution in the house of a 
Heathen, which would have rendered them 
unfit for eating the passover. The same 
reason also hindered them from entering 
the governor's palace on other festivals, 
when that magistrate attended in order to 
administer justice : a kind of structure was, 
therefore, erected, adjoining to the palace, 
which served instead of a tribunal, or judg- 
ment-seat. This structure, called in the 
Hebrew Gobbatha, was finely paved with 
small pieces of marble, of different colours, 
being always exposed to the weather. One 
side of this structure joined to the palace, 
and a door was made in the wall, through 
which the governor passed to the tribunal. 
By this contrivance the people might stand 
round the tribunal in the open air, hear and 
see the governor when he spake to them 
from the Pavement, and observe the whole 
administration of justice, without danger 
of being defiled, either by him or any of 
his retinue. 

Before this tribunal the great Redeemer 
of mankind was brought, and the priests 
and elders having taken their places round 
the Pavement, the governor ascended the 
judgment-seat, and asked them what accu- 
sation they brought against the prisoner? 
Though nothing could be more natural 
than for the governor to ask this question, 



yet the Jews thought themselves highly 
affronted by it, and haughtily answered. 
If he had not been a very great and extra- 
ordinary malefactor, we should not have 
given you this trouble at all, much less at 
so unseasonable an hour. 

Pilate then examined Jesus ; and, find- 
ing he had not been guilty either of rebel- 
lion or sedition, but that he was accused of 
particulars relating to the religion and cus- 
toms of the Jews, grew angry, and said, 
What are these things to me ? Take him 
yourselves, and judge him according to 
your own law. Plainly insinuating, that, 
in his opinion, the crime they laid to the 
prisoner's charge was not of a capital na- 
ture ; and that such punishments as they 
were permitted by Cesar to inflict, were 
adequate to any misdemeanor that Jesus 
was charged with. But this proposal of the 
Roman governor was absolutely refused by 
the Jewish priests and elders, because it 
condemned the whole proceeding ; and 
therefore they answered, We have no power 
to put any one to death, as this man cer- 
tainly deserves, who has attempted not 
only to make innovations in our religion, 
but also to set up himself for a king. 

The eagerness of the Jews to get Jesus 
condemned by the Roman governor, who 
often sentenced malefactors to be crucified, 
tended to fulfil the saying of our great Re- 
deemer, who during the course of his minis- 
try had often mentioned what kind of death 
he was, by the counsel of his Father, ap- 
pointed to die. 

Pilate finding it impossible to prevent a 
tumult, unless he proceeded to try Jesus, 
ascended again the judgment-seat, and 
commanded his accusers to produce their 
accusations against him. Accordingly, the^ 
accused him of seditious practices, affirm- 
ing, that he had used every method in his 
power to dissuade the people from paying 

taxes 



AND SAVIOUR, 

taxes to Cesar, pretending that he himself 
was the Messiah, the great King of the 
Jews, so long expected. But they brought 
no proof of these assertions. They only 
insinuated, that they had already convicted 
him of this assertion; which was absolutely 
false. Pilate, however, asked him, Is it 
true what these men lay to your charge, 
that you have indeed attempted to set up 
yourself as King of the Jews ? To which 
Jesus replied, Have you ever, during your 
stay in this province, heard any thing of 
me that gave you reason to suspect me 
guilty of secret practices and seditious de- 
signs against the government ? or do you 
found your question only on the present 
clamour and tumult that is raised against 
me ? If this be the case, be very careful 
lest you be imposed on merely by the am- 
biguity of a word : for, to be King of the 
Jeus, is not to erect a temporal throne in 
opposition to that of Cesar, but a thing of 
a very different nature; the kingdom of the 
Messiah is a heavenly kingdom. 

To which Pilate replied, Am I a Jew? 
Can I tell what your expectations are, and 
in what sense you understand these words ? 
The rulers and chiefs of your own people, 
who are the most proper judges of these 
particulars, have brought you before me, 
as a riotous and seditious person; if this be 
not the truth, let me know what is, and the 
crime thou hast been guilty of. 

Jesus answered, I have, indeed, a king- 
dom, and this kingdom I have professed to 
establish. But then it is not of this world, 
nor have my endeavours to establish it any 
tendency to cause disturbances in the go- 
vernment. For had that been the case, 
my servants would have fought for me, 
and not suffered me to have fallen into the 
hands of the Jews. But I tell you plainly, 
my kingdom is wholly spiritual. I reign 
in the hearts of my people, and subdue 



JESUS CHRIST. 255 

their wills and affections into a conformity 
to the will of God. 

You acknowledge then, in general, an- 
swered Pilate, that you have professed to 
be a kino-? To which the blessed Jesus 
replied, In the sense I have told you, I 
have declared, and do now declare, my- 
self to be a king. For this very end I was 
born, and for this purpose I came into 
the world, that I should bear witness to the 
truth; and whosoever sincerely loves, and 
is always ready to embrace, the truth, 
will hear my testimony, and be convinced 
by it. 

Pilate answered, What is truth? and im- 
mediately went out to the Jews, and said 
unto them, I have again examined this 
man, but cannot find him guilty of any 
fault, which, according to the Roman law, 
is worthy of death. 

This generous declaration made by the 
governor, of the innocence of our blessed 
Saviour, had no effect on the superstitious 
and bigoted Jews. They even persisted in 
their accusations with more vehemence 
than before, affirming that he had at- 
tempted to raise a sedition in Galilee : He 
stirreth up, said they, the people, beginning 
from Galilee to this place. 

Jesus, however, made no answer at all 
to this heavy charge. Nay, he continued 
silent, notwithstanding the governor him- 
self expressly required him to speak in his 
own defence. A conduct so extraordinary, 
in such circumstances, astonished Pilate 
exceedingly ; for he had great reason to be 
persuaded of the innocence of our dear 
Redeemer. The truth is, he was altogether 
ignorant of the divine counsel by which the 
whole affair was directed. 

There were many reasons which induced 
the blessed Jesus not to make a public de- 
fence. He came into the world purely to 
redeem lost and undone sinners, by offer- 
ing 



256 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



ing up himself a sacrifice for them ; but 
had he pleaded with his usual force, the 
people had, in all probability, been induced 
to ask his release, and consequently his 
death had been prevented. Besides, the 
gross falsehood of the accusation, known to 
all the inhabitants of Galilee, rendered any 
reply absolutely needless. 

In the mean time, the chief priests con- 
tinued to accuse him with great noise and 
tumult. And the meek and humble Jesus 
still continuing mute, Pilate spake again to 
him, saying, Wilt thou continue to make 
no defence ? Dost thou not hear how ve- 
hemently these men accuse thee ? 

But Pilate, recollecting what the chief 
priests had said with regard to a sedition 
in Galilee, asked, if Jesus came out of 
that country ? and on being informed he 
did, he immediately ordered him to be 
carried to Herod, who was also then at 
Jerusalem. 

The governor supposed that Herod, in 
whose dominion the sedition was said to 
have been raised, must be a much better 
judge of the affair than himself; besides, his 
being a Jew rendered him more versed in 
the religion of his own country, and gave 
him greater influence over the chief priests 
and elders; he therefore considered him as 
the most proper person to prevail on the 
Jewish council to desist from their cruel 
prosecution. But if, contrary to all human 
probability, he should at their solicitation 
condemn Jesus, Pilate hoped to escape the 
guilt and infamy of putting an innocent 
person to death. He might also propose by 
this action to regain Herod's friendship, 
which he had formerly lost, by encroach- 
ing, in all probability, on his privileges. 

But, however that be, or whatever motive 
induced Pilate to send our great Redeemer 
to Herod, the latter greatly rejoiced at this 
opportunity of seeing Jesus, hoping to 



have the pleasure of beholding him per- 
form some great miracle. 

In this he was, however, disappointed : 
for as Herod had apostatized from the doc- 
trine of John the Baptist, to which he was 
once probably a convert, and had even put 
his teacher to death, the blessed Jesus, 
however liberal of his miracles to the sons 
and daughters of affliction, would not work 
them to gratify the curiosity of a tyrant, nor 
even answer one of the many questions he 
proposed to him. 

Herod finding his expectation thus cut 
off, ordered our blessed Saviour to be 
clothed with an old robe, resembling in 
colour those worn by kings, and permitted 
his attendants to insult him. 

From Herod's dressing him in this man- 
ner, it evidently appears, that the chief 
priests and elders had accused him of 
nothing but his having assumed the cha- 
racter of the Messiah ; for the affront put 
upon him was plainly in derision of that 
profession. 

The other head of accusation, namely, 
his having attempted to raise a sedition in 
Galilee, on account of tribute paid to Ce- 
sar, they did not dare to mention, as He- 
rod could not fail of knowing it to be a 
gross and malicious falsehood. And no 
crime worthy of death being laid to his 
charge, Herod sent him again to Pilate. 
It seems, that though he was displeased 
with the great Redeemer of mankind for 
refusing to work a miracle before him, yet 
he did not think proper to comply with the 
wishes of his enemies. 

CHAP. XXXVIII. 
The Roman Governor, for want of Evidence, 
proposes to acquit and release Jesus, three 
several times: but at length, at the press- 
ing histigation of the inveterate Jews, he 
condemns and delivers him up. 

THE 



AND SAVIOUR, 

THE Roman governor, in order to ac- 
quire popular applause, used gene- 
rally, at the feast of the passover, to release 
a prisoner nominated by the people. At 
this feast there was one in prison, named 
Barabbas, who, at the head of a number 
of rebels, had made an insurrection in the 
city, and committed murder during the 
confusion. 

The multitude, being now again assem- 
bled before the governor's palace, began 
to call aloud on him to perform the an- 
nual office of mercy customary at that 
festival. 

Pilate, glad of this opportunity, told 
them that he was very willing to grant the 
favour they desired ; and asked them whe- 
ther they would have Barabbas or Jesus 
released unto them? But without waiting 
for an answer, he offered to release Jesus, 
knowing that the chief priests had deliver- 
ed him through envy ; especially as Herod 
had not found him guilty of the crimes laid 
to his charge. 

While these particulars were transacting, 
Pilate received a message from his wife, 
then with him at Jerusalem, and who had 
that morning been greatly affected by a 
dream which gave her great uneasiness. 
The dream had so great an effect on this 
Roman lady, that she could not rest till 
she had sent an account of it to her hus- 
band, who was then sitting with the tribu- 
nal on the Pavement, and begged him to 
have no hand in the death of the righteous 
person he was then judging. 

The people had not yet determined whe- 
ther they would have Jesus or Barabbas 
released to them; therefore, when Pilate 
received the message from his wife, he 
called the chief priests and rulers together, 
and, in the hearing of the multitude, made 
a speech to them, in which he gave them 
an account of the examination which Jesus 



JESUS CHRIST. 2.57 

had undergone, both at his own and He- 
rod's tribunal, declaring, that in both 
courts it had turned out honourably to his 
character; for which reason he proposed 
to them, that he should be the object of 
the people's favour. 

Pilate did the priests the honour of de- 
siring to know their inclinations in par- 
ticular, perhaps with a design to soften 
their stony hearts, and, if possible, to move 
them for once to pity an injured, but in- 
nocent, man. But he was persuaded that 
if pity was absolutely banished from their 
callous breasts, his proposal would have 
been acceptable to the people, whom he 
expected would embrace the first oppor- 
tunity of declaring in his favour. Yet in 
this he was disappointed. They cried out 
all at once, Away with this man, and release 
unto us Barabbas. 

Apostate mortals! a few hours ago ye 
listened with rapture to his heavenly dis- 
courses, beheld with transport the many 
salutary miracles wrought by this benevo- 
lent Son of the Most High, and earnestly 
importuned him to take possession of the 
throne and sceptre of David ! Now nothing- 
will satiate your infernal malice but his 
precious blood ! but remember, ye miscre- 
ants, ye monsters in human form, that this 
same Jesus, whom ye beheld with such 
contempt before the tribunal of the Roman 
governor; this Jesus, whose blood your 
infernal mouths so loudly requested ; shall 
one day come in the clouds of heaven to 
take vengeance on his enemies ! and how 
will ye be able to bear the sight of his ap- 
pearance, when the very heavens them- 
selves will melt at his presence, the sun 
become black as sackcloth of hair, the moon 
be turned into blood, and the stars fly from 
their spheres? How will }^e then repent of 
your unjust demand, and call to the moun- 
tains and rocks to fall on you, and hide 

3 T von 



253 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



you from the presence of that immaculate 
Lamb of God, the tremendous Judge of 
the whole earth ! 

Pilate himself was astonished at this de- 
termination of the multitude, and repeated 
his question ; for he could hardly believe 
what he had himself heard. But on their 
again declaring that they desired Barabbas 
might be released, he asked them what he 
should do with Jesus, which is called Christ? 
as if he had said, You demanded that Ba- 
rabbas should be released ; but what shall 
I then do with Jesus? You cannot surely 
desire me to crucify him, whom so many 
of 3 T ou have acknowledged as your Mes- 
siah ! But they cried, saying, Crucify him, 
crucify him. Then Pilate saith unto them, 
Why, what evil hath he done ? and they cried 
out the more exceedingly, Crucify Mm. 

They were so resolutely determined to 
have him destroyed, that notwithstanding 
the governor urged them again and again 
to desire his release, declared his innocence, 
and offered several times to dismiss him, 
they would not hear it, uttering their rage, 
sometimes in hollow, distant, inarticulate 
murmurs, and sometimes in furious out- 
cries: to such a pitch were their passions 
raised by the craft and artful insinuations 
of their priests. 

Pilate, finding it therefore in vain to 
struggle with their prejudices, called for 
water, and washed his hands before the 
multitude, crying out, at the same time, 
that the prisoner had no fault, and that 
he himself was innocent of his blood. 

By this action and declaration Pilate 
seems to have intended to make an im- 
pression on the Jewish populace, by com- 
plying with the institution of Moses, which 
orders, in case of an unknown murder, the 
elders of the nearest city to wash their 
hands publicly, and say, Our hands have 
not shed this blood, Deut. xxi. 7- And, in 



allusion to this law, the Psalmist says, / 
will wash my hands in innocence. Accord- 
ing, therefore, to this Jewish rite, Pilatf 
made the most solemn and public declara- 
tion of the innocence of our dear Redeemer, 
and of his resolution of having no hand in 
his death. 

But, notwithstanding the solemnity of 
this declaration, the Jews continued in- 
flexible, and cried out with one voice, His 
blood be on us, and on our children. Dread- 
ful imprecation ! it shocks humanity ! An 
imprecation which brought on them the 
dreadful vengeance of Omnipotence, and 
is still a heavy burden on that perfidious 
people ! 

The governor finding it impossible to 
alter their choice, released unto them Ba- 
rabbas. And as it was a general practice 
of the Romans so scourge those criminals 
they condemned to be crucified, Pilate 
ordered the blessed Jesus to be scourged, 
before he delivered him to the soldiers to 
be put to death. 

The soldiers having scourged Jesus, and 
received orders to crucify him, carried him 
into the Pretorium, or common hall, where 
they added the shame of disgrace to the 
bitterness of his punishment ; for sore as 
he was by reason of the stripes they had 
given him, they dressed him in a purple 
robe, in derision of his being King of the 
Jews. Having dressed him in this robe of 
mock-majesty, they put a reed in his hand 
instead of a sceptre, and after platting a 
wreath of thorns, they put it on his head 
for a crown; forcing it down in so rude a 
manner, that his temples were torn, and 
his face besmeared with his most precious 
blood. To the Son of God, in this con- 
dition, the rude soldiers bowed the knee, 
pretending to do it out of respect; but at 
the same time gave him severe blows on 
his head, which drove the points of the 

wreath 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



259 



wreath afresh into his temples, and then 
spit on him, to express their highest con- 
tempt. 

The governor, whose office obliged him 
to be present at this shocking scene of in- 
humanity, was ready to burst with grief. 
The sight of an innocent and eminently 
holy person, treated with such shocking 
barbarity, raised in his breast the most 
painful sensations of pity. And though 
he had given sentence that it should be as 
the Jews desired, and had delivered our 
dear Redeemer to the soldiers to be cruci- 
fied, he was in hopes that if he shewed him 
to the people in that condition, they must 
relent, and earnestly petition for him to 
be released. 

Filled with this thought, he resolved to 
carry him out, and exhibit to their view a 
spectacle capable of softening the most en- 
venomed, obdurate, and enraged enemy. 
And in order to render the impression still 
more poignant, he went out himself, and 
said unto them, Though I have sentenced 
this man to die, and have scourged him as 
one that is to be crucified, yet I once more 
bring him before you, that I may again 
testify how fully I am persuaded of his in- 
nocence ; and that ye may yet have an 
opportunity of saving his life. 

As soon as the governor had finished his 
speech, Jesus appeared on the Pavement, 
his hair, his face, his shoulders, all clotted 
with blood, and the purple robe daubed 
with spittle of the soldiers. And that the 
sight of Jesus in this distress might make 
the greater impression on the people, Pilate, 
while he was coming forward j cried out, 
Behold the man! As if he had said, Will 
nothing make you relent? Have ye lost 
all the feelings of humanity, and bowels of 
compassion ? Can you bear to see the in- 
nocent, a son of Abraham, thus injured? 

But all this was to no purpose ; the priests, 



whose rage and malice had extinguished 
not only the sentiments of justice and feel- 
ings of pity natural to the human heart, 
but also that love which countrymen bear 
for each other, no sooner saw Jesus, than 
they began to fear the fickle populace 
might relent; and, therefore, laying de- 
cency aside, they led the way to the mul- 
titude, crying out with all their might, 
Crucify him ! crucify him ! 

Pilate, vexed to see the Jewish rulers 
thus obstinately bent on the destruction of 
a person from whom they had nothing to 
fear that was dangerous, either with regard 
to their church or state, passionately told 
them, that if they would have him cruci- 
fied, they must do it themselves; because 
he would not suffer his people to murder a 
man who was guilty of no crime. 

But this they also refused, thinking it 
dishonourable to receive permission to 
punish a person that had been more than 
once publicly declared innocent by his 
judge. Besides, they considered with 
themselves, that the governor might after- 
wards have called it sedition, as the per- 
mission had been extorted from him. Ac- 
cordingly, they told him that even though 
none of the things alleged against the 
prisoner were true, he had committed such 
a crime, in presence of the council itself, 
as by their law deserved the most ignomi- 
nious death. He had spoken blasphemy, 
calling himself the Son of God, a title 
which no mortal could assume, without 
the highest degree of guilt : We have a law, 
and by our law he ought to die, because he 
made himself the Son of God. 

When Pilate heard that Jesus called him- 
self the Son of God, his fear was increased. 
Knowing the obstinacy of the Jews in all 
matters of religion, he was afraid they 
would make a tumult in earnest; or per- 
haps he was himself more afraid than ever 

to 



2(50 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



to take away his life, because he suspected 
it might be true. He doubtless remem- 
bered the miracles said to have been per- 
formed by Jesus, and therefore suspected 
that he really was the Son of God. For it 
was well known, that the religion which 
the governor professed, directed him to ac- 
knowledge the existence of demigods and 
heroes, or men descended from the gods. 
Nay, the Heathens believed that their 
gods themselves appeared upon earth in 
the form of men. 

Reflections of this kind induced Pilate 
to go again to the judgment-hall, and ask 
Jesus from what father he sprung, and from 
what country he came ? But our blessed 
Saviour gave him no answer, lest the go- 
vernor should reverse his sentence, and ab- 
solutely refuse to crucify him. 

Pilate marvelled greatly at his silence, 
and said unto Jesus, Why dost thou refuse 
to answer me? You cannot be ignorant 
that I am invested with absolute power, 
either to release or crucify you. To which 
Jesus answered, I well know that you are 
Cesar's servant, and accountable to him 
for your conduct. I forgive you any in- 
jury which, contrary to your inclination, 
the popular fury constrains you to do unto 
me. Thou hast thy power from above, 
from the emperor : for which cause, the 
Jewish high-priest, who hath put me into 
thy hands, and, by pretending that I am 
Cesar's enemy, forces thee to condemn 
me ; or, if thou refusest, will accuse thee 
as negligent of the emperor's interest ; is 
more guilty than thou. He that delivered 
me unto thee hath the greater sin. 

This sweet and modest answer made 
such an impression on Pilate, that he went 
out to the people, and declared his inten- 
tion of releasing Jesus, whether they gave 
their consent or not. Upon which the 
chief priests and rulers of Israel cried out, 



If thou let this man go, thou art not Cesar s 
friend : whosoever maketh himself a king 
speaketh against Cesar. If thou releasest 
the prisoner, who hath set himself up for a 
king, and has been accused of endeavour- 
ing to raise a rebellion in the country, thou 
art unfaithful to the interest of the em- 
peror thy master. 

This argument was weighty, and shook 
Pilate's resolution to the very basis. He 
was terrified at the thought of being ac- 
cused to the emperor, who, in all affairs of 
government, always suspected the worst 
and punished the most minute crimes rela- 
tive thereto with death. 

The governor being thus constrained to 
yield, contrary to his inclination, was very 
angry with the priests for stirring up the 
people to such a pitch of madness, and de- 
termined to affront them. 

He therefore brought Jesus out, a second 
time, into the Pavement, wearing the pur 
pie robe and the crown of thorns ; and 
pointing to him, said, Behold your King! 
ridiculing their national expectation of s 
Messiah, 

This sarcastical expression stung them 
to the quick, and they cried out, Away 
with him ! away with him ! crucify him ! 
To which Pilate answered with the same 
mocking air, Shall I crucify your King? 
The chief priests answered, TV e have no king 
but Cesar. Thus did they publicly re- 
nounce their hope of the Messiah, which 
the whole economy of their religion had 
been calculated to cherish : they also pub- 
licly acknowledged their subjection to the 
Romans ; and, consequently, condemned 
themselves when they afterwards rebelled 
against the emperor. 

We cannot help observing here, that the 
great unwillingness of the governor to pass 
sentence of death upon Jesus, has some- 
thing in it very remarkable. For, from 

the 



AND SAVIOUR, 

the character of Pilate, as drawn by the 
Roman historians themselves, he seems to 
have been far from possessing any true 
principle of virtue. To what then could 
it be owing, that so wicked a man should 
so steadily adhere to the cause of Inno- 
cence, which he defended with consider- 
able resolution, and perhaps would never 
have abandoned it, had he not been forced 
by the threatenings of the chief priests and 
rulers of Israel ; and when he did yield, 
and passed sentence of death upon our 
dear Redeemer, why did he still declare 
him innocent ? This can certainly be at- 
tributed to no other cause than to the 
secret but powerful direction of the provi- 
dence of the Almighty, who intended that, 
at the same time his Son was condemned 
and executed as a malefactor, his inno- 
cence should be made appear in the most 
public manner, and by the most authentic 
evidence, even that of the judge himself. 
From the circumstances we have been re- 
lating we may learn, that though the Al- 
mighty, in the course of his providential 
government of the world, and for purposes 
beyond the comprehension of finite mor- 
tals, suffers the most virtuous characters to 
be exposed, not only to the insults, but the 
cruelty, of the most abandoned of man- 
kind ; yet he will certainly at a future pe- 
riod vindicate the cause of innocence, and 
strike the guilty with horror and remorse 
for their impious conduct. 

CHAP. XXXIX. 

The innocent and immaculate Redeemer is led 
forth to Mount Calvary, and there igno- 
minioushj crucified between two notorious 
Malefactors. — Reviled by the Spectators. — 
A Phenomenon appears on the important 
Occasion. — Our Lord addresses his Friends 
from the Cross, and gives up the ghost. 



JESUS CHRIST. 261 

HE solemn, the awful period, now ap- 
proached, when the Son of God, the 
Redeemer of the world, was to undergo 
the oppressive burden of our sins, upon 
the tree, and submit unto death, even the 
death of the cross, that we might live at 
the right hand of God for ever and ever. 

Sentence being pronounced upon the 
blessed Jesus, the soldiers w r ere ordered to 
prepare for his execution, a command 
which they readily obeyed ; and after 
clothing him in his own garments, led him 
aw r ay to crucify him. It is not said that 
they took the crown of thorns from his 
temples; probably he died wearing it, that 
the title placed over his head might be the 
better understood. 

It is not to be expected that the minis- 
ters of Jewish malice remitted any of the 
circumstances of affliction, which were 
ever laid on persons condemned to be cru- 
cified. Accordingly, Jesus was obliged to 
walk on foot to the place of execution, 
bearing his cross. But the fatigue of the 
preceeding night, spent without sleep; the 
sufferings he had undergone in the garden; 
his having been hurried from place to 
place, and obliged to stand the whole time 
of his trial; the want of food, and the loss 
of blood he had sustained, and not his 
want of courage on this occasion ; made 
him faint under the burden of his cross. 
The soldiers, seeing him unable to bear the 
weight, laid it on one Simon, a native of 
Cyrene, in Egypt, the father of Alexander 
and Rufus, well known among the first 
Christians, and forced him to bear it after 
the great Redeemer of mankind. The 
soldiers did not, however, do this out of 
compassion to the Sufferings of Jesus, but 
to prevent his dying with the fatigue, and 
by that means elude his punishment. 

The blessed Jesus, in his journey to Cal- 
vary, was followed by an innumerable 
3 U " multitude 




262 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



multitude of people, particularly of women, 
who lamented bitterly the severity of his 
sentence, and shewed all the tokens of 
sincere compassion and grief. Jesus, who 
always felt the woes of others more than 
he did his own, forgetting his distress at 
the very time when it lay heaviest upon 
him, turned himself about, and, with a be- 
nevolence and tenderness truly divine, said 
to them, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not 
for me ; but weep for yourselves, and for 
j four children. For, behold, the days are com- 
ing in which they shall say, Blessed are the 
barren, and the wombs that never bare, and 
the paps which never gave suck. Then shall 
they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on 
us ; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they 
do these things in a green tree, zvhat shall be 
done in the dry? Luke xxiii. 28, &c. As 
if he had said, Dry up these tears, ye 
daughters of Jerusalem, which ye shed in 
compassion to me, and reserve them for 
the deplorable fate of yourselves and of 
your children : for the calamities that will 
soon fall on you and your offspring are 
truly terrible, and call for the bitterest 
lamentations. In those days of vengeance 
you will passionately wish that you had not 
given birth to a generation whose wicked- 
ness has rendered them the objects of the 
wrath of the Almighty, to such a degree as 
never was before experienced in the world. 
Then shall they wish to. be crushed under 
the weight of enormous mountains, and 
concealed from their enemies in the bowels 
of the hills. The thoughts of these cala- 
mities afflict my soul far more than the 
feeling of my own sufferings. For if the 
Romans are permitted to inflict such pu- 
nishments on me, who am innocent, how 
dreadful must the vengeance be which they 
shall inflict on a nation whose sins cry aloud 
to heaven, hastening the pace of the divine 
judgments, and rendering the perpetrators 



as proper for punishment as dry wood is for 
the flames. 

Being arrived at the place of execution, 
which was called Golgotha, or the Place 
of Skulls, from the criminals' bones which 
lay scattered there, some of our Redeemer's 
friends offered him a stn pitying potion, to 
render him insensible to the ignominy and 
excruciating pain of his punishment. But 
as soon as he tasted the potion, he refused 
to drink it, being determined to bear his 
sufferings, however sharp, not by intoxi- 
cating and stupifying himself, but by the 
strength of patience, fortitude, and faith. 

Jesus having refused the potion, the sol- 
diers began to execute their orders, by 
stripping him quite naked, and in that con- 
dition began to fasten him to his cross. But 
while they were piercing his hands and his 
feet with nails, instead of crying out through 
the sharpness of the pain, he calmly, though 
fervently, prayed for them, and for all those 
who had any hand in his death ; beseech- 
ing his heavenly Father to forgive them, 
and excusing them himself by the only cir- 
cumstance that could alleviate their guilt ; 
I mean, their ignorance. Father, said the 
compassionate Redeemer of mankind, for- 
give them ; for they know not what they do. 
This was infinite meekness and goodness, 
truly worthy of the only begotten Son of 
God ; an example of forgiveness, which, 
though it can never be equalled by any, 
should be imitated by all. 

But, behold, the appointed soldiers dig the 
hole in which the cross was to be erected ! — 
the cross is fixed in the ground — the blessed 
Jesus lies on the bed of sorrows — they nail 
him to it — his nerves break — his blood dis- 
tils — he hangs upon his wounds naked, a 
spectacle to heaven and earth ! 

Thus was the only begotten Son of God, 
who came down from heaven to save the 
world, crucified by his own creatures; and, 

to 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



2(53 



to render the ignominy still greater, placed 
between two thieves ! Hear, 0 heavens ! 0 
earth, earth, earth, hear! The Lord hath 
nourished and brought up children, and they 
have rebelled against him. 

It was usual for the crimes committed by 
malefactors to be written on a white board, 
with black, and placed over their heads 
on the cross. In conformity to this cus- 
tom, Pilafee wrote a title in the Hebrew, 
Greek, and Latin languages, that all 
foreigners, as well as natives, might be 
able to read it, and fastened it to the cross, 
over the head of Jesus ; and the inscription 
was, This is the king of the Jews. But 
when the chief priests and the elders had 
read this title, they were greatly displeas- 
ed ; because, as it represented the crime 
for which Jesus was condemned, it insinu- 
ated that he had been acknowledged for 
the Messiah. Besides, being placed over 
the head of one who was dying by the 
most infamous punishment, it implied that 
all who attempted to deliver the Jews 
should perish in the same manner. The 
faith and hope of the nation, therefore, 
being thus publicly ridiculed, it is no won- 
der that the priests thought themselves 
highly affronted ; and accordingly came 
to Pilate, begging that the writing might 
be altered. But as he had intended the 
affront in revenue for their forcing; him to 
crucify Jesus, contrary both to his judg- 
ment and inclination, he refused to grant 
their request : What I have written, said he, 
I have written. 

When the soldiers had nailed the blessed 
Jesus to the cross, and erected it, they 
divided his garments among them. But 
his coat, or vesture, being without seam, 
woven from the top throughout, they agreed 
not to rend it, but to cast lots for it ; by 
which the prediction of the prophet con- 
cerning the death and sufferings of the 



Messiah was fulfilled. They parted my gar- 
ments among them, and for my vesture did 
they cast lots. A sufficient indication that 
every circumstance of the death and pas- 
sion of the blessed Jesus was perfectly 
known long before in the court of heaven ; 
and accordingly his being crucified between 
two malefactors was expressly foretold, — 
And he was numbered with the transgressors, 
Isa. liii. 12. 

The common people, of the baser sort, 
whom the vile priests had incensed against 
the blessed Jesus, by the malicious false- 
hoods they had spread concerning him, 
and which they pretended to found on the 
deposition of witnesses ; the common peo- 
ple, I say, seeing him hang in so infamous 
a manner upon the cross, and reading the 
inscription that was placed over his head, 
expressed their indignation at him by sar- 
castical expressions. Ah thou, said they, 
that destroyest the temple, and bulkiest it in 
three days, save thyself, and conic down iron} 
the cross. 

But the common people were not the 
only persons who mocked and derided the 
blessed Jesus, while he was suffering to 
obtain the remission of sins for all man- 
kind. The rulers, who now imagined they 
had effectually destroyed his pretensions 
to the character of the Messiah, joined 
the populace in ridiculing him, and, with 
a meanness of soul which many infamous 
wretches would have scorned, mocked him, 
even while he was struggling with the 
agonies of death. They scoffed at the 
miracles by which he demonstrated him- 
self to be the Messiah, and promised to 
believe on him, on condition of his proving 
his pretensions by descending from the 
cross. He saved others, said they, himself 
he cannot save : if he be the King of Israel, 
let him nozv come down from the cross, and we 
will believe on him. 

In 



264 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



In the mean time, nothing could be 
more false and hypocritical than this pre- 
tension of the stiff-necked Jews ; for they 
afterwards continued in their unbelief, not- 
withstanding they well knew that he raised 
himself from the dead : a much greater 
miracle than his coming down from the 
cross would have been ; a miracle attested 
by witnesses whose veracity they could not 
call in question. It was told them by the 
soldiers whom they themselves placed at 
the sepulchre to watch the body, and who 
they were obliged to bribe largely to con- 
ceal the truth. It is therefore abundantly 
evident, that if the blessed Jesus had de- 
scended from the cross, the Jewish priests 
would have continued in their infidelity; 
and, consequently, that their declaration 
was made with no other intention than to 
insult the Redeemer of mankind, thinking- 
it impossible for him now to escape out of 
their hands. 

The soldiers also joined in this general 
scene of mockery : If thou be the King of 
the Jews, said they, save thyself. If thou 
art the great Messiah expected by the 
Jews, descend from the cross by miracle, 
and deliver thyself from these excruciating 
torments. 

Nor did even one of the thieves forbear 
mocking; the great Lord of heaven and 
earth, though labouring himself under the 
most racking pains, and struggling with 
the agonies of death. But the other exer- 
cised a most extraordinary faith, at a time 
when our great Redeemer was in the 
highest affliction, mocked by men, and 
hanged upon the cross, as the most igno- 
minious of malefactors. This Jewish cri- 
minal seems to have entertained a more 
rational and exalted notion of the Mes- 
siah's kingdom than even the disciples 
themselves. They expected nothing but a 
secular empire : he gave strong intima- 



tions of his having an idea of Christ's spi- 
ritual dominion ; for at the very time when 
Jesus was dying on the cross, he begged 
to be remembered by him when he came 
into his kingdom. Lord, said he, remember 
me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Nor 
did he make this request in vain : the great 
Redeemer of mankind answered him, Verily 
I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in 
Paradise. 

But let us attentively consider the his- 
tory of our blessed Saviour's passion, as 
it offers to our view events absolutely 
astonishing'. For when we remember the 
perfect innocence of our great Redeemer, 
the uncommon love he bore to the chil- 
dren of men, and the many kind and 
benevolent offices he did for the sons and 
daughters of affliction ; when we reflect 
on the esteem in which he was held all 
along by the common people, how cheer- 
fully they followed him to the remotest 
corners of the country, nay, even into the 
desolate retreats of the wilderness, and 
with what pleasure they listened to his 
discourses; when we consider these par- 
ticulars, I say, we cannot help being- 
astonished to find them at the conclusion 
rushing all of a sudden into the opposite 
extreme, and every individual, as it were, 
combined to treat him with the most bar- 
barous cruelty. 

When Pilate asked the people, if they 
desired to have Jesus released ; his dis- 
ciples, though they were very numerous, 
and might have made a great appearance 
in his behalf, remained absolutely silent, 
as if they had been speechless or infatu- 
ated. The Roman soldiers, notwithstand- 
ing; their general had declared him inno- 
cent, insulted him in the most inhuman 
manner. The Scribes and Pharisees ridi- 
culed him. The common people, who 
had received him with hosannas a few 

days 



AND SAVIOUR, 

days before, mocked him as they passed 
by, and railed at him as a deceiver. Nay, 
the very thief on the cross reviled him. 

This sudden revolution in the humour 
of the whole nation may seem unaccount- 
able. But if we could assign a proper 
reason for the silence of the disciples, the 
principles which influenced the rest might 
be discovered in their several speeches. — 
The followers of the blessed Jesus had 
attached themselves to him in expectation 
of being raised to great wealth and power 
in his kingdom, which they expected 
would have been established long before 
this time. But seeing no appearance at 
all of what they had so long hoped for, 
they permitted him to be condemned, per- 
haps because they thought it would have 
obliged him to break the Roman yoke by 
miracle. 

With respect to the soldiers, they were 
angry that any one should pretend to roy- 
alty in Judea, where Cesar had established 
his authority. Hence they insulted our 
blessed Saviour with the title of king, and 
paid him, in mockery, the honours of a 
sovereign. 

As for the common people, they seem 
to have lost their opinion of him, proba- 
bly because he had neither convinced the 
council, nor rescued himself when they 
condemned him. They began therefore 
to consider the assertion of his destroying 
the temple, and building it in three days, 
as a kind of blasphemy, because it requir- 
ed a divine power to execute such an un- 
dertaking. 

The priests and scribes were filled with 
the most implacable and diabolical malice 
against him ; because he had torn off their 
mask of hypocrisy, and shewed them to 
the people in their true colours. It is there- 
fore no wonder that they ridiculed his mira- 
cles, from whence he derived his reputation. 



JESUS CHRIST. 265 

In short, the thief also fancied that he 
might have delivered both himself and 
them, if he had been the Messiah ; but as 
no such deliverance appeared, he upbraid- 
ed him for making pretensions to that 
high character. 

But now, my soul, take one view of thy 
dying Saviour, breathing out his spirit up- 
on the cross ! Behold his unspotted flesh 
lacerated with stripes, by which thou art 
healed ! See his hands extended and nail- 
ed to the cross, those beneficent hands 
which were incessantly stretched out to 
unloose thy heavy burdens, and to impart 
blessings of every kind ! Behold his feet 
riveted to the accursed tree with nails ! 
those feet which always went about doing 
good, and travelled far and near to spread 
the glad tidings of everlasting salvation ! 
View his tender temples encircled with a 
wreath of thorns, which shoot their keen 
afflicting points into his blessed head ; that 
head which was ever meditating peace to 
poor lost and undone sinners, and spent 
many a wakeful night in ardent prayer for 
their happiness ! See him labouring in the 
agonies of death ! breathing out his sou. 
into the hands of his Almighty Father, and 
praying for his cruel enemies ! Was ever 
love like this ? was ever benevolence so 
gloriously displayed ? 

Oh my soul, put thou thy trust in that 
bleeding, that dying Saviour! Then, tho' 
the pestilence walketh in darkness, and the 
sickness destroy eth at noon-day ; though 
thousands fall beside thee, and ten thou- 
sands at thy right hand ; thou needest not 
fear the approach of any evil ! Either the 
destroying angel shall pass over thee, or 
dispense the corrections of a friend, not 
the scourges of an enemy, which, instead 
of hurting, will, work for thy good. Then 
though profaneness and infidelity (far more 
malignant evils) breathe their contagion, 

3 X and 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



and taint multitudes around thee, thou 
shalt be safely hid in the hollow of his 
hand, and preserved in every danger. 

Come then, my soul, and take sanctuary 
under that tree of life, the ignominious 
cross of thy bleeding Saviour : fly for safe- 
ty to that city of refuge, opened in his 
bleeding wounds. These will prove a sa- 
cred hiding-place, not to be pierced by the 
flames of divine wrath, or the fiery darts of 
temptations. His dying merits, his perfect 
obedience, will be as rivers of water in a dry 
place, or as the shadow of a great rock in a 
dreary land. 

But particularly in that last tremendous 
day, when the heavens shall be rent asun- 
der, and be wrapt up like a scroll ; when 
his almighty arm shall arrest the sun in his 
career, and dash the structure of the uni- 
verse to pieces ; when the dead, both small 
and great, shall be gathered before the 
throne of his glory, and the fates of all 
mankind hang on the very point of a final 
irreversible decision ; then, if thou hast 
faithfully trusted in him, and made his 
precepts thy constant directors, shalt thou 
be owned and defended by him. O ! rea- 
der, may both thou that perusest, and him 
who hath written this for thy soul's advan- 
tage, be covered, at that unutterably impor- 
tant conjuncture, by the wings of his re- 
deeming love ; then shall we behold all 
the horrible convulsions of expiring nature 
with composure, with comfort ! we shall 
even welcome the consummation of all 
things, as the times of refreshing from the 
presence of the Lord. 

But see the sun, that glorious luminary 
of heaven, as it were hides his face from 
this detestable action of mortals, and is 
wrapt in the pitchy mantle of chaotic dark- 
ness ! This preternatural eclipse of the 
sun continued for three hours, to the great 
terror and astonishment of the people pre- 



sent at the crucifixion of our dear Redeem- 
er. And surely nothing could be more 
proper than this extraordinary alteration in 
the face of nature, while the Sun of Righ- 
teousness was withdrawing his beams, not 
only from the promised land, but from the 
whole world ; for it was at once a miracu- 
lous testimony, given by the Almighty 
himself, to the innocence of his Son, and 
a proper emblem of the departure of him 
who was the light of the world, at least till 
his luminous rays, like the beams of the 
morning, shone out anew with additional 
splendour in the ministry of his apostles. 

Nor was the darkness which now cover- 
ed Judea and the neighbouring countries, 
beginning about noon and continuing till 
Jesus expired, the effect of an ordinary 
eclipse of the sun. It is well known that 
this phenomenon can only happen at the 
change of the moon ; whereas the Jewish 
passover, at which our great Redeemer suf- 
fered, was always celebrated at the full. — 
Besides, the total darkness of an eclipse of 
the sun never exceeds twelve or fifteen mi- 
nutes ; whereas this continued three full 
hours. Nothing, therefore, but the imme- 
diate hand of that almighty Being which 
placed the sun in the centre of the pla- 
netary system, could have produced this 
astonishing darkness. Nothing but Om- 
nipotence, who first lighted this glorious 
luminary of heaven, could have deprived 
it of its cheering rays. Now, ye scoffers 
of Israel, whose blood ye have so earnest- 
ly desired, and wished it might fall upon 
you and your children, behold, all nature 
is dressed in the sable vail of sorrow, and, 
in a language that cannot be mistaken, 
mourns the departure of its Lord and 
Master ; weeps for your crimes, and depre 
cates the vengeance of Heaven upon youi 
guilty heads ! Happy for you that this suf- 
fering Jesus is compassion itself, and even 

in 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



267 



in the agonies of death prays to his hea- 
venly Father to avert from you the stroke 
of his justice. 

This preternatural eclipse of the sun was 
considered as a miracle by the heathens 
themselves ; and one of them cried out, 
Either the world is at an end, or the God of 
nature suffers. And well might he use the 
expression ; for never since this planetary 
system was called from its primitive chaos, 
was known such a deprivation of light in 
the glorious luminary of day. Indeed, 
when the Almighty punished Pharaoh for 
refusing to let the children of Israel depart 
out of his land, the sable vail of darkness 
was for three days drawn over Egypt. But 
this darkness was confined to a part of that 
kingdom ; whereas this that happened at 
our Saviour's crucifixion was universal. 

When the darkness began, the disciples 
naturally considered it as a prelude to the 
deliverance of their Master. For though 
the chief priests, elders, and people, had 
sarcastically desired him to descend from 
the accursed tree ; his friends could not but 
be persuaded, that he who had delivered so 
many from incurable diseases, who had re- 
stored limbs to the maimed, and eyes to 
the blind, who had given speech to the 
dumb, and called the dead from the cham- 
bers of the dust, might easily save himself, 
even from the cross. 

When, therefore, his mother, his mo- 
ther's sister, Mary Magdalene, and the be- 
loved disciple, observed the vail of dark- 
ness begin to extend over the face of na- 
ture, they drew near to the foot of the 
cross, probably in expectation that the 
Son of God was going to shake the frame 
of the universe, unloose himself from the 
cross, and take ample vengeance on his 
cruel and perfidious enemies. 

The blessed Jesus was now in the midst 
of his sufferings. Yet when he saw his 



mother and her companions, their grief 
greatly affected his tender breast, especial- 
ly the distress of his mother. The agonies 
of death, under which he was now labour- 
ing, could not prevent his expressing the 
most affectionate regard, both for her and 
for them. For, that she might have some 
consolation to support her under the great- 
ness of her sorrows, he told her the disci- 
ple whom he loved would, for the sake of 
that love, supply his place to her after he 
was taken from them, even the place of 
a son ; and, therefore, he desired her to 
consider him as such, and expect from him 
all the duties of a child. Woman, said he, 
behold thy son. 

Nor was this remarkable token of filial 
affection towards his mother the only in- 
stance the dying Jesus gave of his sincere 
love to his friends and followers ; the be- 
loved disciple had also a token of his high 
esteem. He singled him out as the only 
person among his friends to supply his 
place with regard to his mother. Accord- 
ingly he desired him expressly to reverence 
her in the same manner as if she had been 
his own parent : a duty which the fa- 
vourite disciple gladly undertook, carried 
her with him to his house, and maintained 
her from that hour to the day of her death ; 
her husband Joseph having, it seems, been 
dead some time. 

Thus in the midst of the heaviest sufferings 
that human nature ever sustained, the bles- 
sed Jesus demonstrated a divine strength 
of benevolence. Even at the time when 
his own distress was at the highest pitch, 
and nature was dressed in the robe of 
mourning for the sufferings of the Redeem- 
er of mankind, his friends had so large a 
share of his concern, that their happiness 
interrupted the sharpness of his pains, and 
for a short time engrossed his thoughts. 

But now the moment, when he should 

resign 



268 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



resign bis soul into the hands of his hea- 
venly Father, approached, and he repeated 
part, at least, of the twenty-second Psalm, 
uttering with a loud voice these remark- 
able words, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? 
that is, My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me? 

Some believe that our blessed Saviour 
repeated the whole Psalm ; it having been 
the custom of the Jews, in making quota- 
tions, to mention only the first words of 
the psalm or section which they cited. If 
so, as this psalm contains the most remark- 
able particulars of our dear Redeemer's 
passion, being as it were a summary of 
the prophecies relative to that subject, by 
repeating it on the cross, the blessed Jesus 
signified that he was now accomplishing 
the things that were predicted concerning 
the Messiah. And as this psalm is com- 
posed in the form of a prayer, by pro- 
nouncing it at this time he also claimed of 
his Father the performance of all the pro- 
mises he had made, whether to him or to 
his people. 

Some of the people who stood by, when 
they heard our blessed Saviour pronounce 
the first words of the psalm, misunderstood 
him, probably from their not hearing him 
distinctly, and concluded that he called 
for Elias. Upon which one of them filled 
a sponge with vinegar, put it on a reed, 
and gave him to drink ; being desirous to 
keep him alive as long as possible, to see 
whether Elias would come to take him 
down from the cross. 

But as soon as Jesus had tasted the 
vinegar, he said, It is finished. That is, the 
work of man's redemption is accomplished ; 
the great work, which the only begotten 
Son of God came into the world to per- 
form, is finished. 

In speaking these words, he cried with 
an exceeding loud voice ; and afterwards 



addressed his Almighty Father, in words 
which form the best pattern of a recom- 
mendatory prayer at the hour of death: 
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. 
And having uttered these words, he bowed 
his head, and yielded up the ghost. 

But, behold ! at the very instant that 
the blessed Jesus resigned his soul into the 
hands of his heavenly Father, the vail of 
the temple was miraculously rent from the 
top to the bottom ; probably in the pre- 
sence of the priest who burnt incense in 
the holy place, and who, doubtless, pub- 
lished the account when he came out : for 
our blessed Saviour expired at the ninth 
hour, the very time of offering the evening 
sacrifice. 

Nor was this the only miracle that hap- 
pened at the death of the great Messiah ; 
the earth trembled from its very founda- 
tions, the flinty rocks burst asunder, and 
the sepulchres hewn in them were opened , 
and many bodies of saints deposited there 
awaked after his resurrection from the 
sleep of death, left the gloomy chambers 
of the tomb, went into the city of Jeru- 
salem, and appeared unto many. 

And as the rending the vail of the tern- 
pie intimated that the entrance into the 
holy place, the type of heaven, was now 
laid open to all nations ; so the resurrec- 
tion of a number of saints from the dead, 
demonstrated that the power of death and 
the grave was broken ; the sting was taken 
from death, and the victory wrested from 
the grave. In short, our dear Redeemer's 
conquests over the enemies of mankind 
were shewn to be complete; and an earnest 
was given of the general resurrection of 
the dead. 

Nor did the remarkable particulars 
which attended that awful period, when 
Jesus gave up the ghost, affect the natives 
of Judea only. The Roman centurion, 

who 



AND SAVIOUR, 

who was placed near the cross, to prevent 
disorders of any kind, glorified the Al- 
mighty, and cried out, Truly this was the Son 
of God! And others who were with them, 
when they beheld heaven itself bearing 
witness to the truth of our great Redeem- 
er's mission, smote their breasts, and re- 
tired. 

They had been incessant with loud voi- 
ces to have him crucified : but when they 
saw the face of the creation wrapt in the 
gloomy mantle of darkness during his cru- 
cifixion, and found his death accompanied 
with an earthquake, as if nature had been 
in an agony when he died, they rightly in- 
terpreted these prodigies to be so many 
testimonies from the Almighty of his inno- 
cence ; and their passions, which had been 
inflamed and exasperated against him, be- 
came quite calm, or exerted in his behalf. 
Some were angry with themselves for neg- 
lecting the opportunity the governor gave 
them of saving his life. Some were stung 
with remorse for having been active in pro- 
curing Pilate to condemn him, and even 
offering the most bitter insults while he 
laboured under the most cruel sufferings. 
And others were deeply affected at behold- 
ing the pains he suffered, which were rigor- 
ously severe. 

These various passions being visibly 
painted in their countenances, afforded a 
melancholy spectacle ; many of the mul- 
titude returning from the place of execu- 
tion with their eyes fixed upon the earth, 
pensive and silent ; their hearts ready to 
burst with grief, groaning deeply within 
themselves, shedding floods of tears, and 
smiting on their breasts. 

The grief they now felt for the blessed 
Jesus, was distinguished from their former 
rage against him by this remarkable parti- 
cular, that their rage was entirely owing 
to the artful insinuations of the priests : 



JESUS CHRIST 269 

whereas their grief was genuine, and the 
natural feelings of their own hearts, greatly 
affected with the truth and innocence of 
him who was the object of their commise 
ration. And as flattery had no share in 
this mourning, so the expressions of their 
sorrow were such as became a real and un- 
feigned passion. 

Thus were demonstrated, by many awful 
tokens, the truth, the divinity, the power, 
of our Redeemer's mission : and the blind, 
the obdurate Jews, were struck with horror, 
fully convinced that the person they had 
cruelly put to death, was nothing less than 
the Son of God, the promised Messiah, 
the Saviour of the world. 

CHAP. XL. 

The blessed Jesus treated with Indignity after 
his Crucifixion. — A pious Person begs his 
Body of Pilate in order for Interment. 

T was expressly forbidden by the law of 
Moses, that the bodies of those who 
were hanged should remain all night on 
the tree. In conformity to this law, and 
because the sabbath was at hand, the Jews 
begged the governor that the legs of the 
three persons crucified might be broken, 
to hasten their death. To this request 
Pilate readily consented ; and accordingly 
gave the necessary order to the soldiers to 
put it in execution. 

But on perceiving that Jesus was already 
dead, the soldiers did not give themselves 
the trouble of breaking his legs, as they 
had done those of the two malefactors 
that were crucified with him. One of 
them, however, either out of wantonness 
or cruelty, thrust a spear into his side, 
and out of the wound flowed blood and 
water. 

This wound, therefore, was of the great- 
est importance to mankind, as it abun- 
3 Y dantly, 



270 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



dantly demonstrated the truth of our Savi- 
our's death, and consequently prevented 
all objections that the enemies to our holy 
faith would otherwise have raised against 
it. The evangelist adds, that the legs of 
our great Redeemer were not broken, but 
his side pierced, that two particular pro- 
phecies might be fulfilled : A bone of him 
shall not be broken; and, They shall look on 
him whom they have pierced. 

Among the disciples of our blessed Je- 
sus, was one called Joseph, of Arimathea; 
a person equally remarkable for his birth, 
fortune, and office. This man, who was 
not to be intimidated by the malice of his 
countrymen, went boldly to Pilate, and 
begged the body of his great Master. He 
had, indeed, nothing to fear from the Ro- 
man governor, who, during the whole 
course of our Saviour's trial, bad shewn the 
greatest inclination to release him ; but he 
had reason to apprehend that this action 
might draw upon him the malice of the 
rulers of the Jews ; who had taken such 
great pains to get the Messiah crucified. 

However, the great regard he had for the 
remains of his Master, made him despise 
the malice of the Jews ; being persuaded 
that Omnipotence would defend him, and 
cover his enemies with shame and confu- 
sion. And he well knew, that if no friend 
procured a grant of the body, it would be 
ignominiously cast out among the executed 
malefactors. 

Pilate was at first surprised at the re- 
quest of Joseph, thinking it highly impro- 
bable that he should be dead in so short a 
time. He had, indeed, given orders for the 
soldiers to break the legs of the crucified 
persons ; but he knew it was common for 
them to live many hours after that opera- 
tion was performed : for though the pain 
they felt must be exquisite to the last de- 
gree, yet as the vital parts remained un- 



touched, life would continue some time in 
the miserable body. 

The governor, therefore, called the cen- 
turion, to know the truth of what Joseph 
had told him; and being convinced, from 
the answer of that officer, that Jesus had 
been dead some time, he readily gave the 
body to Joseph. 

This worthy counsellor having obtained 
his request, repaired to mount Calvary; 
and being assisted by Nicodemus, took 
the body down from the cross. The latter 
was formerly so cautious in visiting Jesus, 
that he came to him by night. But in pay- 
ing the last duties to his Master, he used 
no art to conceal his design. He shewed 
a courage far superior to that of any of 
his apostles, not only assisting Joseph 
in taking down the body of Jesus from 
the cross, but bringing with him a quan- 
tity of spices necessary in the burial of his 
Saviour. 

Accordingly they wrapt the body with 
the spices in fine linen, and laid it in a new 
sepulchre, which Joseph had hewn out of 
a rock for himself. The sepulchre was 
situated in a garden near mount Calvary ; 
and in which, having carefully deposited 
the body of the blessed Jesus, they fastened 
the door, by rolling to it a very large stone. 
And when Joseph had taken the body, he 
wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it 
in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out 
in the rock : and he rolled a great stone to the 
door of the sepulchre, and departed, Matt, 
xxvii. 59, 60. 

Oh ! what a wonderful spectacle was 
now exhibited in this memorable sepul- 
chre ! He who clothes himself with light 
as with a garment, and walks upon the 
wings of the wind, was pleased to wear the 
habiliments of mortality, and dwell among 
the prostrate dead ! Who can repeat the 
wondrous truth too often? Who can dwell 

upon 



AND SAVIOUR, 

upon the enchanting theme too long? — 
He who sits enthroned in glory, and diffuses 
bliss among all the heavenly host, was once 
a pale and bloody corpse, and pressed the 
floor of this little sepulchre ! 

0 Death ! how great was thy triumph in 
that hour ! never did thy gloomy realms 
contain such a prisoner before. Prisoner, 
did I say? No, he was more than con- 
queror. He arose far more mighty than 
Samson from a transient slumber ; broke 
down the gates, and demolished the strong 
holds, of those dark dominions. And 
this, O mortals, is your consolation and 
security. Jesus hath trod the dreadful 
path, and smoothed it for your passage. 
Jesus, sleeping in the chambers of the 
tomb, hath brightened the dismal mansion, 
and left an inviting odour in those beds of 
dust. The dying Jesus is your sure protec- 
tion, your unquestionable passport through 
the territories of the grave. Believe in 
him, and they shall prove a highway to 
Sion; shall transmit you safe to paradise. 
Believe in him, and you shall be no losers, 
but unspeakable gainers, by your dissolu- 
tion. For hear what the Oracle of heaven 
says on this important point : Whoso be- 
Ueveth in me shall never die. Death shall 
no longer be inflicted as a punishment, but 
rather vouchsafed as a blessing. The exit 
of saints is the end of their frailty, and 
their entrance upon perfection; their last 
groan is the prelude to life and immor- 
tality. 

But to return. The women of Galilee, 
who had watched their dear Redeemer in 
his last moments, and accompanied his 
body to the sepulchre, observing that the 
funeral rites were performed in a hurry, 
agreed among themselves, as soon as the 
sabbath was passed, to return to the sepul- 
chre, and embalm the body of their dead 
Saviour, by anointing and swathing him in 



JESUS CHRIST. 271 

the manner then common among the Jews. 
Accordingly they retired to the city, and 
purchased the spices necessary for that 
purpose ; Nicodemus having furnished only 
a mixture of myrrh and aloes. 

During these transactions, the chief 
priests and Pharisees, remembering that 
Jesus had more than once predicted his 
own resurrection, came to the governor, 
and informed him of it; begging, at the 
same time, that a guard might be placed 
at the sepulchre, lest his disciples should 
carry away the body, and affirm that he 
was risen from the dead. This happened 
a little before it was dark in the evening, 
called the next day that followed, by the 
evangelist, because the Jewish day began 
at sunset. 

This request being thought reasonable 
by Pilate, he gave them leave to take as 
many soldiers as they pleased out of the 
cohort, which at the feast came from the 
castle of Antonia, and kept guard of the 
porticoes of the temple. For that they 
were not Jewish but Roman soldiers 
whom the priests employed to watch the 
sepulchre, is evident from their asking 
them of the governor. Besides, when the 
soldiers returned with the news of our 
Saviour's resurrection, the priests desired 
them to report that his disciples had stolen 
him away while they slept ; and, to en- 
courage them to tell the falsehood boldly, 
promised, that if their neglect of duty came 
to the governor's ears, proper methods 
should be used to pacify him, and deliver 
them from any punishment; a promise 
which there was no need of making to their 
own servants. 

The priests having thus obtained a guard 
of Roman soldiers, men long accustomed 
to military duties, and therefore the most 
proper for watching the body, set out with 
them to the sepulchre ; and to prevent 

these 



272 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



these guards from combining with the dis- 1 
ciples in carrying on any fraud, placed 
them at their post, and sealed the stone 
which was rolled to the door of the sepul- 
chre. 

Thus what was designed to expose the 
mission and doctrines of Jesus, as rank 
falsehood and vile imposture, proved in 
fact the strongest confirmation of the truth 
and divinity of the same, that could pos- 
sibly be given ; and placed what they 
wanted to refute (which was his resur- 
rection from the dead) even beyond a 
doubt. 

CHAP. XLI. 

Two pious Women go to view the Sepulchre of 
their crucified Lord and Saviour. — An 
awful Phenomenon happens. — A minister- 
ing Spirit descends. — The Redeemer bursts 
the Chains of Death, and rises from the 
Tomb. 

ERY early in the morning after the 
Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, and the 
other Mary, came to visit the sepulchre, 
in order to embalm our Lord's body ; for 
the performance of which they had, in 
concert with several other women from 
Galilee, brought ointments and spices. — 
But before they reached the sepulchre, 
there was a great earthquake preceding the 
most memorable event that ever happened 
among the children of men, the resur- 
rection of the Son of God from the dead. 
For the angel of the Lord descended from 
heaven, and came and rolled back the stone 
from the door of the sepulchre, and sat upon it : 
his countenance was like lightning, and his 
raiment white as snow : and for fear of him 
the keepers did shake, and became as dead men: 
they fled into the city, and the Saviour of 
the world rose from the dead. 

The angel, who had till then sat upon 



the stone, quitted his station, and entered 
into the sepulchre. In the mean time, 
Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, 
were still on their way to the place, toge- 
ther with Salome, who joined them on the 
road. As they proceeded nn their way, 
they consulted among themselves, with 
regard to the method of putting their de- 
sign of embalming the body of their Mas- 
ter in execution ; particularly with respect 
to the enormous stone which they had 
seen placed there, with the utmost diffi- 
culty, two days before. Who, said they, 
shall roll away the stone from the door of the 
sepulchre? For it was very great. — But in 
the midst of this deliberation about re- 
moving this great and sole obstacle to their 
design, (for it does not appear they knew 
any thing of the guard,) they lifted up 
their eyes, and perceived it was already 
rolled away. 

Alarmed at so extraordinary and unex- 
pected a circumstance, Mary Magdalene 
concluded, that the stone could not have 
been rolled away without some design ; and 
that those who rolled it away could have 
no other intent than that of removing our 
Lord's body. Imagining, by appearances, 
that they had really done so, she ran imme- 
diately to acquaint Peter and John of what 
she had seen, and what she suspected ; leav- 
ing Mary and Salome there, that if the 
other women should arrive during her ab- 
sence, they might acquaint them with their 
surprise at finding the stone removed, and 
of Mary Magdalene's running to inform the 
apostles of it. 

In the mean time, the soldiers, who 
were terrified at seeing an awful messenger 
from on high roll away the stone from the 
door of the sepulchre, and open it in qua- 
lity of a servant, fled into the city, and 
informed the Jewish rulers of these mi- 
raculous appearances. This account was 

highly 




AND SAVIOUR, 

highly mortifying to the chief priests, as it 
was a proof of our Saviour's resurrection 
that could not be denied : they, therefore, 
resolved to stifle it immediately ; and ac- 
cordingly bribed the soldiers to conceal 
the real fact, and to publish every where 
that his disciples had stolen the body out 
of the sepulchre. 

What ! the body taken away while the 
place was guarded by Roman soldiers ? 
Yes, according to these wise priests, the 
disciples stole the body while the soldiers 
slept ! A story so inconsistent, and which 
so evidently carries the marks of its own 
confutation with it, that it deserves no 
answer. 

The priests themselves could not be so 
stupid as not to foresee what construction 
the world would pat upon the account, 
given by persons who pretended to know 
and tell what was done while they were 
asleep. 

CHAP. XLII. 

The Angel addresses the pious Women. — Two 
Disciples go to the Sepulchre. — Jesus ap- 
pears to Mary Magdalene. — Afterwards to 
a Company of Women. — Peter meets his 
Lord and Master after his Resurrection. 

~W^7"HILE Mary Magdalene was going 
fi ™ to inform the disciples that the stone 
was rolled away from the mouth of the 
sepulchre, and the body taken away, Mary 
and Salome continued advancing towards 
the place, and at their arrival found, what 
they expected, the body of their beloved 
Master gone from the sepulchre, where it 
had been deposited by Nicodemus and Jo- 
seph of Arimathea ; but at the same time 
beheld, to their great astonishment, a beau- 
tiful young man, in shining raiment, very 
glorious to behold, sitting on the right side 
of the sepulchre. 



JESUS CHRIST. 273 

Matthew tells us, that it was the angel 
who had rolled away the stone, and fright- 
ened away the guards from the sepulchre. 
It seems he had now laid aside the terrors 
in which he was then arrayed, and as- 
sumed the form and dress of a human be- 
ing, in order that these pious women, who 
had accompanied our Saviour during the 
greatest part of the time of his public mi- 
nistry, might be as little terrified as pos- 
sible. 

But notwithstanding his beauty and 
benign appearance, they were greatly 
affrighted, and on the point of turning 
back, when the heavenly messenger, to 
banish their fears, told them in a gentle 
accent, that he knew their errand. Fear not, 
said he, for I know that ye seek Jesus which 
was crucified. Tie is not here ; for he is ri- 
sen, as he said: and then invited them to 
come down into the sepulchre, and view 
the place where the Son of God had lain ; 
that is, to look on the linen clothes, and 
the napkin that had been about his head, 
and which he had left behind him when 
he arose from the dead : for to look at the 
place in any other view, would not have 
tended to confirm their faith of his resur- 
rection. 

The women, greatly encouraged by the 
agreeable news, as well as by the peculiar 
accent with which this blessed messenger 
from the heavenly Canaan delivered his 
speech, went down into the sepulchre, 
when, behold, another of the angelic choir 
appeared. 

They did not, however, yet seem to give 
sufficient credit to what was told them by 
the angel ; and therefore the other gently 
reproved them for seeking the living among 
the dead, with an intention to do him an 
office due only to the latter, and for not 
believing what was told them by a messen- 
ger from heaven, or rather, for not remem- 

3 Z bering 



274 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Bering the words which their great Master 
himself had told them with regard to his 
own resurrection. Why seek ye the living 
among the dead ? He is not here, but is 
risen : remember hozo he spake unto you 
when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son 
of man must be delivered into the hands of 
sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day 
rise again. 

When the women had satisfied their 
minds by looking at the place where the 
Lord had lain, and where nothing was to 
be found but the linen clothes, the angel 
who first appeared to them resumed the 
discourse, and bade them to go and tell 
his disciples, particularly Peter, the glad 
tidings of his Master's resurrection from the 
dead ; that he was going before them to 
Galilee ; and that they should there have 
the pleasure of seeing him. 

The reason why the disciples were or- 
dered to go into Galilee, to meet their great 
and beloved Master, seems to be this: they 
were now most of them in Jerusalem, cele- 
brating the passover ; and it may be easily 
imagined that, on receiving the news of 
their Lord's resurrection, many, if not all, 
would resolve to tarry in Jerusalem, in ex- 
pectation of meeting him there: a thing 
that must have proved of great detriment 
to them at that time of the year, when the 
harvest was about to begin, the sheaf of 
first-fruits being always offered on the se- 
cond day of the passover week. 

In order, therefore, to prevent their stay- 
ing so long from home, the message was 
sent directing them to return into Galilee, 
with full assurance that they should there 
have the pleasure of seeing their great Lord 
and Master; and by that means have all 
their doubts removed, and be fully con- 
vinced that he had patiently undergone all 
his sufferings for the sins of mankind. 

The women, highly elated with the news 



of their Lord's resurrection, left the sepul- 
chre immediately, and ran to carry the 
disciples the glad tidings. 

During these transactions at the sepul- 
chre, Peter and John, having been in- 
formed by Mary Magdalene that the stone 
was rolled away, and the body of Jesus not 
to be found, were hastening to the grave, 
and missed the women who had seen the 
appearance of angels. 

The disciples being astonished at what 
Mary Magdalene had told them, and de- 
sirous of having their doubts cleared up, 
made all the haste possible to the sepul- 
chre ; and John, being younger than Pe- 
ter, arrived at the place first, but did not 
go in, contenting himself with stooping 
down, and seeing the linen clothes lying, 
which had been wrapped about our Savi- 
our's body. Peter soon arrived, and went 
to the sepulchre, where he saw the linen 
clothes, and the napkin that was about his head 
not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped 
together in a place by itself 

Our Lord left the grave-clothes in the 
sepulchre, probably to shew that his body 
was not stolen away by his disciples, who 
in such a case would not have taken time 
to have stripped it. Besides, the circum- 
stances of the qrave-clothes induced the 
disciples themselves to believe, when the 
resurrection was related to them. But at 
that time they had not any suspicion that 
he was risen from the dead 

These two disciples having thus satis- 
fied themselves that what Mary Magda- 
lene had told them was really true, returned 
to their respective habitations ; but Mary, 
who had returned, continued weeping at 
the door of the sepulchre. She had, it 
seems, followed Peter and John to the 
garden, but did not leave it with them, 
being anxious to find the body. Accord- 
ingly, stepping down into the place to 

examine 



AND SAVIOUR, 

examine it once more, she saw two angels 
sitting, the one at the head and the other 
at the feet, where the body of Jesus had 
lain. They were now in the same position 
as when they appeared to the other wo- 
men; but had rendered themselves invi- 
sible while Peter and John were at the 
sepulchre. 

Mary, on beholding these heavenly mes- 
sengers dressed in the robes of light, was 
greatly terrified. But they, in the most 
endearing accent, asked her, Woman, why 
weepest thou ? To which she answered, 
Because they have taken away my Lord, and 
I know not where they have laid him. On 
pronouncing these words, she turned her- 
self about, and saw Jesus standing near 
her ; but the terror she was in, and the 
garments in which he was now dressed, 
prevented her from knowing him for some 
time. Jesus repeated the same question 
used before by the angel, Woman, why 
weepest thou ? To which Mary, who now 
supposed him to be the gardener, answered, 
Sir, if his body be troublesome in the se- 
pulchre, and thou hast removed him, tell 
me where he is deposited, and I will take 
him away. But our blessed Saviour, will- 
ing to remove her anxiety, called her by 
her name, with his usual tone of voice : on 
which she immediately knew him, and 
foiling down before him, would have em- 
braced his knees, according to that mo- 
desty and reverence with which the wo- 
men of the East saluted the men, especially 
those who were their superiors in station. 

But Jesus refused this compliment, tell- 
ing her, that he was not going immediately 
into heaven. He was often to shew him- 
self to the disciples before he ascended ; so 
that she would have frequent opportunities 
of testifying her regard to him. And at 
the same time said to her, Go to my bre- 
thren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Fa- 



JESUS CHRIST. 275 

ther and your Father, and to my God and 
your God. 

Thus did the blessed Jesus contemplate, 
with a singular pleasure, the work of re- 
demption he had just finished. The happy 
relation between God and man, which had 
been long cancelled by sin, was now re- 
newed. The Almighty, who had disowned 
them on account of their disobedience, 
was again reconciled to them ; he was 
become their God and Father ; they were 
exalted to the honourable relation of 
Christ's brethren, and the sons of God ; 
and their Father loved them with an affec- 
tion far exceeding that of the most tender- 
hearted parent upon earth. The kindness 
of this message, sent by our dear Redeemer 
to his disciples, will appear above all praise, 
if we remember their late behaviour. — 
They had every one of them forsaken him 
in the greatest extremity : when he was 
scourged and mocked by the Roman sol- 
diers, derided by his countrymen, and 
spitefully entreated by all, they hid them- 
selves in some place of safety, and prefer- 
red their own security to the deliverance of 
their Master. When he fainted under the 
burden of his cross, none of them were 
there to assist him. 

Simon, a Cyrenian, was compelled by 
the Roman soldiers to ease him of his pon- 
derous burden. But notwithstanding they 
had refused to assist their Master during 
his sufferings for the sins of the world, he 
graciously, he freely, forgave them ; he as- 
sured them of their pardon, and called them 
even by the endearing name of brethren. 

There is something very remarkable in 
this part of the history. None of the apos- 
tles, or male disciples, were honoured with 
the first appearance of the angels, or with 
the immediate news of the resurrection of 
the Son of God, much less with the appear- 
ance of Jesus himself. 

The 



276 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



The angels in the sepulchre kept them- 
selves invisible all the time that Peter and 
John were observing the linen clothes, and 
satisfying themselves that the body of their 
Master was not there. Perhaps the male 
disciples in general were treated with this 
mark of disrespect, both because they had, 
with shameful cowardice, forsaken their 
Master when he was betrayed into the 
hands of his enemies, and because their 
faith was so weak that they had absolutely 
despaired of his being the Messiah, when 
they saw him expire on the cross. But 
how different was the conduct of the wo- 
men ! Laying aside the weakness and 
timidity natural to their sex, they shewed an 
uncommon magnanimity on this melan- 
choly occasion. For, in contradiction to 
those of the Jews, who so vehemently re- 
quired Jesus to be crucified as a deceiver, 
they proclaimed his innocence by tears, 
cries, and lamentations, when they saw 
him led forth to suffer on mount Calvary ; 
accompanied him to the cross, the most 
infamous of all punishments; kindly waited 
on him in his expiring moments, giving him 
all the consolation in their power, though 
at the same time the sight of his sufferings 
pierced them to the heart ; and when he 
expired, and his body was carried off, they 
accompanied him to his grave, not despair- 
ing, though they found he had not delivered 
himself, but to appearance was conquered 
by death, the universal enemy of mankind. 
Perhaps these pious women entertained 
some faint hopes that he would still revive. 
Or, if they did not entertain expectations 
of that kind, they at least cherished a 
strong degree of love for their Lord, and 
determined to do him all the honour in 
their power. 

A faith so remarkably strong, a love so 
ardent, and a fortitude so unshaken, could 
not fail of receiving distinguished marks 



of the divine approbation : and they were 
accordingly honoured with the news of 
Christ's resurrection, before the male disci- 
ples had their eyes cheered with the first 
sight of their beloved Lord, after he arose 
from the chambers of the grave : so that 
they preached the joyful tidings of his re- 
surrection to the apostles themselves. 

But there seems to have been other rea- 
sons why our great Redeemer shewed him- 
self first to the women. The thoughts of the 
apostles were constantly fixed on a tem- 
poral kingdom, and they had wrested all 
his words into an agreement with that fa- 
vourite notion. And whatever they could 
not construe as consonant to that opinion, 
they seemed either to have disbelieved or 
disregarded. 

Hence, notwithstanding Jesus had re- 
peatedly foretold his own sufferings, they 
were astonished above measure when they 
found he had expired on the cross. Im - 
mortality and terrestrial dominion were, ac- 
cording to their notion, the characteristics 
of the Messiah ; for which reason, when 
they found that, instead of establishing 
himself in the possession of universal em- 
pire, he had neither delivered himself from 
a handful of enemies, nor even from death, 
they gave over the hopes of his being the 
Messiah. And as for the resurrection, 
they seem not to have entertained the least 
notion of it ; so that when the news of this 
great event was brought to them, they 
doubted the truth of the information. 

Not so the women; they were more 
submissive to their Master's instructions, 
and consequently were much better pre- 
pared for seeing him, after his resurrection, 
than the apostles : for though they did not 
expect that he would rise from the dead, 
yet they were not prejudiced against it. 
This cannot be said of the apostles : they 
not only absolutely rejected the matter 

at 



AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. 



277 



at first, as a thing incredible, but even after 
they were acquainted with the accounts 
the soldiers had given of this great trans- 
action ; nay, after they had seen the blessed 
Jesus himself, some of them were so un- 
reasonable as still to doubt. How much 
rather then would their incredulity have 
led them to suspect his appearing as an 
illusion, had he shewed himself to them? 
These reports led him to point out the ar- 
guments proper for disposing them to be- 
lieve ; particularly the prophecies that had 
been so often delivered in their own hear- 
ing;, concerning: his resurrection. Hence 
the angels, when they told this event to 
the women, and desired them to cany the 
news of it to his disciples, put them 
in mind of the predictions Jesus himself 
had made, as a confirmation of it. Hence 
we also see the reason why Jesus, before 
he had made himself known to the disci- 
ples at Emmaus, had prepared them for a 
discovery, by expounding to them, on the 
road, the several prophecies concerning 
the Messiah, contained in the Old Tes- 
tament. 

The women, on their arrival, told as 
many of the disciples as they could find, 
that they had seen at the sepulchre the ap- 
pearance of angels, who assured them that 
Jesus was risen from the dead. This new 
information astonished the disciples ex- 
ceedingly ; and as they had before sent 
Peter and John to examine into the truth 
of what Mary Magdalene had told them, 
concerning the body being removed out 
of the sepulchre, so they now judged it 
highly proper to send some of their num- 
ber to see the angels, and learn from them 
the joyful tidings of that great transaction, 
of which the women had given them an 
account. 

That it was really the case, appears from 
what the disciples, in their journey to Em- 



maus, told their great. Lord and Master ; 
namely, that when the women came and 
told them that they had seen the angels, 
certain of their number went to the sepul- 
chre, and found it even as the women had 
said, but him they saw not. 

The second deputation from the apos- 
tles did not go alone; for as Mary Magda- 
lene returned with Peter and John, who 
were sent to examine the truth of her in- 
formation, so the women who brought an 
account of the appearance of angels, in all 
probability returned with those who were 
sent to be witnesses of the truth of their 
report. Besides curiosity, they had an 
errand thither. The angels had expressly 
ordered them to tell the news to Peter in 
particular ; for which reason, when they 
understood that he was gone to the sepul- 
chre, it is natural to think they would re- 
turn with the disciples to seek him. About 
the time that the disciples and women set 
out from the sepulchre, Peter and John 
reached the city; but passing through a 
different street, did not meet their brethren. 

The disciples having a great desire to 
reach the place, soon left the women be- 
hind; and just as they arrived, Mary Mag- 
dalene, having seen the Lord, w r as coming 
away. But they did not meet her, because 
they entered the garden at one door, while 
she was coming out at another. When they 
came to the sepulchre, they saw the angels, 
and received from them the news of their 
blessed Master's resurrection ; for St. Luke 
tells us, They found it even as the women had 
said. Highly elated with what they saw, 
they departed, and ran back to the city, 
with such expedition, that they gave an 
account of what they had seen in the 
hearing of the two disciples, before Mary 
Magdalene arrived. 

Nor will their speed appear at all incre- 
dible, if we consider that the nature of the 

4 A tidings 



278 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



tidings the apostles had to carry gave them 
wings, as it were, to make their brethren 
partakers of their joy at this surprising 
transaction. 

In the mean time, the company of 
women, who followed the disciples, hap- 
pened to meet Peter and John. But they 
had not gone far from the sepulchre, before 
Jesus himself met them, and said, All hail! 
On which they approached their great 
Lord and Master, held him by the feet, and 
worshipped him. This favour of embracing 
his knees, Jesus had previously refused to 
Mary Magdalene, because it was not then 
necessary ; but he granted it to the wo- 
men, because the angel's words having 
strongly impressed their minds with the 
notion of his resurrection, they might have 
taken his appearance for an illusion of 
their own imagination, had he not permit- 
ted them to touch him, and convince them- 
selves, by the united reports of their senses, 
that he was their great Lord and Master, 
who was then risen from the dead, after 
having suffered on the cross for the sins of 
mankind. 

This company of pious women having 
tarried some time with Jesus on the road, 
did not arrive with the joyful tidings of 
their great Master's resurrection, till some 
time after Peter and John ; and perhaps 
were overtaken by Mary Magdalene on the 
road, unless we suppose that she arrived 
a few minutes before them. But be that 
as it may, this is certain, that they arrived 
either at or near the same time ; so that 
their accounts of this miraculous event 
tended to confirm each other. 

The disciples were now lost in astonish- 
ment at what the women had related : they 
considered the account they had before 
given them, of their having seen the an- 
gels, as an improbability ; and now they 
seem to have considered this as something 



worse, for the evangelist tells us that they 
believed not. 

Peter, indeed, to whom the angel sent 
the message, was disposed, by his sanguine 
temper, to give a little more credit to their 
words than the rest; possibly because the 
messengers from the heavenly Canaan had 
done him the honour of naming him in 
particular. 

Elated with the respect thus paid him, 
he immediately repaired again to the se- 
pulchre ; hoping, in all probability, that 
his Master would appear to him, or at 
least the angel who had so particularly 
distinguished him from the rest of the dis- 
ciples. 

As soon as Peter arrived at the sepul- 
chre, he stooped down, and seeing the 
linen clothes lying in the same manner as 
before, he viewed their position, the form 
in which they were laid, and returned, 
wondering greatly in himself at what had 
happened. 

CHAP. XLIII. 

Jesus appears, on divers Occasions, to diffe- 
rent Disciples. — Heproves and convinces 
Thomas of his Unbelief. — Shews himself 
to a great Number of his Followers in Ga- 
lilee. 

gOON after the women s first return to 
^ the disciples with the news that they 
had seen the appearance of angels, who 
told them that Jesus was risen from the 
dead, two of the brethren departed on 
their journey to a village called Emmaus, 
about two miles distant from Jerusalem. 
The concern they were in on account of 
the death of their great and beloved Mas- 
ter, was sufficiently visible in their coun- 
tenances. And as they pursued their jour- 
ney, talking with one another, and de- 
bating 



AND SAVIOUR, 

bating about the things that had lately 
happened among them, concerning the life 
and doctrine, the sufferings and death, of 
the holy Jesus, and of the report that was 
just spread among his disciples, of his 
being that very morning risen from the 
dead, Jesus himself overtook them, and 
joined company with them. 

As he appeared like a stranger, they did 
not in the least suspect that their fellow- 
traveller was no other than the great 
Redeemer of the sons of men. He soon 
entered into discourse with them, by in- 
quiring what event had so closely engaged 
them in conversation, and why they ap- 
peared so sorrowful and dejected, as if 
they had met with some heavy disappoint- 
ment? 

One of them, whose name was Cleopas, 
being surprised at the question, replied, Is 
it possible that you can be so great a 
stranger to the affairs of the world, as to 
have been at Jerusalem, and not have 
heard the surprising events that have hap- 
pened there? events that have astonished 
the whole city, and are now the constant 
topic of conversation among all the inha- 
bitants ? Jesus asked, what surprising 
events he meant? To which Cleopas re- 
plied, The transactions which have hap- 
pened concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who 
appeared as a great prophet and teacher 
sent from God; and accordingly was highly 
venerated among the people, for the ex- 
cellency ot his doctrine, his humility of life, 
and the number, benefit, and greatness of 
his miracles. 

Our chief priests and elders therefore 
envying him, as one who lessened their au- 
thority over the people, apprehended him, 
and found means to put him to death. 

But we firmly believed he would have 
proved himself the Messiah, or great deli- 
verer : and this persuasion we a long time 



JESUS CHRIST. 279 

supported ; nor were we willing to abandon 
it, even when we saw him put to death. 
But it is now three days since these things 
were done; and therefore begin to fear we 
were mistaken. 

This very morning, indeed, a thing 
happened, which extremely surprises us, 
and we were very solicitous with regard 
to the event. Some women, who had 
entertained the same hopes and expecta- 
tions as we, going early in the morning to 
pay the last duties to their Master by em- 
balming his body, returned with great haste 
to the city, and informed us that they 
had been at the sepulchre, but were dis- 
appointed in not finding the body; and, 
to increase our surprise, they added, that 
they had seen the appearance of angels, 
who told them that Jesus was risen from 
the dead. 

This relation seemed at first to us not 
probable, nay, altogether incredible ; but 
two of the company going immediately 
after to the sepulchre, found every thing 
exactly as the women had reported; they 
saw the angels, but heard not any thing of 
the body; so that we are still in doubt and 
perplexity with regard to this wonderful 
event. 

In reply, Jesus said, Why are ye so 
very averse to believe all that the pro- 
phets have with one voice predicted con- 
cerning the Messiah ? Is it not clearly 
and very expressly foretold in all the pro- 
phetic writings, that it was appointed by 
the counsel of Omnipotence for the Mes- 
siah to suffer in this manner, and that, af- 
ter sustaining the greatest indignities, re- 
proach, and contempt, from the malice and 
perverseness of mankind, and even under- 
going an ignominious and cruel death, he 
should be exalted to a glorious and eter- 
nal kingdom? Having said this, he began 
at the writings of Moses, and explained to 

them, 



280 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



them, in order, all the principal passages, 
both in the books of that great legislator, 
and the writings of the other prophets, re- 
lating to his own sufferings, death, and glo- 
rious resurrection. 

And this he did with such surprising- 
plainness, clearness, and strength, that the 
two disciples, not yet suspecting who he 
was, were as much amazed to find a stran- 
ger so well acquainted with all that Jesus 
did and suffered, as they at first wondered 
at his appearing to be totally ignorant of 
these transactions. They were also asto- 
nished to hear him interpret and apply the 
scriptures to their present purpose, with 
such readiness and convincing clearness 
of argument, as carried with it a strange 
and unusual authority and efficacy. When, 
therefore, they came to the village whi- 
ther they were going, and Jesus seemed 
as if he would have passed on, and travel- 
led farther, they, desirous of his company, 
pressed him, in the strongest manner, to 
tarry with them that night, as it was then 
late. 

To this request the great Redeemer of 
mankind consented ; and when they were 
sat down to supper, he took bread, and 
gave thanks to God, and brake it, and 
gave it to them in the same manner he 
used to do while he conversed with them 
upon earth, before his death. This engaged 
their attention, and, looking stedfastly on 
him, they perceived it was their great and 
beloved Master. 

But they had then no time to express 
their joy and astonishment to their bene- 
volent Redeemer ; for he immediately va- 
nished out of their sight. 

As soon as they found their Master was 
departed, they said one to another, How 
slow and stupid were we before, not to 
know him upon the road, while he ex- 
plained to us the scriptures; when, besides 



the affability of his discourse, and the 
strength and clearness of his arguments, 
we perceived such an authority in what he 
said, and such a powerful efficacy attending 
his words, even striking our hearts with 
affection, that we could not but have 
known it (if we had not been remarkably 
stupid) to have been the very same that 
used to accompany his teaching, and was 
peculiar to it. 

This surprising event would not admit 
them to stay any longer in Emmaus. They 
returned that very night to Jerusalem, and 
found the apostles, with several other dis- 
ciples, discoursing about the resurrection of 
their Master; and, on their entering the 
room, the disciples accosted them, saying, 
The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appealed 
unto Simon. 

They had given little credit to the re- 
ports of the women, supposing they were oc- 
casioned more by imagination than reality. 
But when a person of Peter's capacity and 
gravity declared he had seen the Lord, they 
began to think that he was really risen from 
the dead. And their belief was greatly 
confirmed by the arrival of the two disciples 
from Emmaus, who declared to their bre- 
thren how Jesus appeared to them on the 
road, and how they discovered him to be 
their Master by the circumstances before 
related. 

While the disciples from Emmaus were 
thus describing the manner of the appear- 
ance of Jesus to them, and offering argu- 
ments to convince those who doubted the 
truth of it, their great Master himself put 
an end to the debate, by standing in the 
midst of them, and saying, Peace be unto 
you. 

This appearance of our blessed Saviour 
greatly terrified the disciples, who sup- 
posed they had seen a spirit ; for having 
secured the doors of the house, where they 

were 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



281 



were assembled for fear of the Jews, and 
Jesus having opened the locks by his mira- 
culous power, without the knowledge of 
any in the house, it was natural for them 
to think that a spirit only could enter. 
The circumstance, therefore, of the doors 
being shut, is very happily mentioned by 
St. John ; because it suggests a reason why 
the disciples took their Master for a spirit, 
notwithstanding many of them were con- 
vinced that he was really risen from the 
dead, and were at that moment conversing 
about his resurrection. 

But to dispel their fears and doubts, Jesus 
came forward, and spoke to them in the 
most endearing manner, shewed them his 
hands and his feet, and desired them to 
handle him, in order to convince themselves, 
by the united powers of their different 
senses, that it was he himself, and no spec- 
tre or apparition. Why are ye troubled, said 
the benevolent Redeemer of mankind, and 
why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Behold 
my hands and my feet, that it is I myself ; 
handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh 
and bones, as ye see me have. 

These infallible proofs sufficiently con- 
vinced the disciples of the truth of their 
Lord's resurrection, and they received him 
with rapture and exultation. But their 
joy and wonder had so great an effect upon 
their minds, that some of them, sensible 
of the great commotion they were in, sus- 
pended their belief, till they had consider- 
ed the matter more calmly. Jesus, there- 
fore, knowing their thoughts, called for 
meat, and ate with them, in order to prove 
more fully the truth of his resurrection 
from the dead, and the reality of his pre- 
sence with them on this occasion. 

After giving this farther ocular demon- 
stration of his having vanquished the pow- 
er of death, and opened the tremendous 
portals of the grave, he again repeated his 



salutation, Peace be unto you. Adding, 
"The same commission that my Father 
hath given unto me, I give unto j^ou ; go 
ye therefore into every part of the world, 
and preach the gospel to all the children 
of men/' Then breathing on them, he 
said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, to direct 
and assist you in the execution of your 
commission. Whosoever embraces your 
doctrine, sincerely repents, and believes on 
me, ye shall declare unto him the free 
forgiveness of his sins, and your declara- 
tion shall be ratified and confirmed in the 
courts of heaven. And whosoever either 
obstinately rejects your doctrine, disobeys 
it, or behaves himself unworthily after he 
has embraced it, his sins shall not be 
forgiven him ; but the censure ye shall 
pass upon him on earth, shall be confirm- 
ed in heaven. 

Thomas, otherwise called Didymus, was 
absent at the meeting of the apostles ; nor 
did this happen without the special direc- 
tion of Providence, that the particular and 
extraordinary satisfaction which w 7 as after- 
wards granted him, might be an abundant 
and undeniable testimony of the truth of 
our blessed Saviour's resurrection, to all 
succeeding generations. The rest of the 
apostles therefore told him, that they had 
seen the Lord, and repeated to him the 
words he had delivered in their hearing. 
But Thomas replied, "This event is of such 
great importance, that unless, to prevent 
all possibility of deception, I see him with 
mine own eyes, and feel him with mine 
own hands, putting my fingers into the 
print of the nails whereby he was fasten- 
ed to the cross, and thrust my hand into 
his side which the soldier pierced with the 
spear ; I will not believe that he is really 
and truly risen from the dead." 

Thus have we enumerated, in the most 
explicit manner, the transactions of that 

4 B day 



232 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



day on which the great Redeemer of man- 
kind arose from the dead ; a day highly to 
be remembered by the children of men, 
throughout all generations. A day, in 
which was fully completed and displayed 
the conceptions lodged in the breast of 
infinite wisdom ! even those thoughts of 
love and mercy, on which the salvation of 
the world depended. Christians have there- 
fore the highest reason to solemnize this 
day with gladness, each returning week, by 
ceasing from their labour, and giving up 
themselves to prayer, hearing and reading 
the word of God, pious meditation, and 
other exercises of religion. The redemp- 
tion of mankind, which they weekly com- 
memorate, affords matter for eternal praise ; 
it is a subject impossible to be equalled, 
and whose lustre neither length of time, 
nor frequent reviewing, can either tarnish 
or diminish. It resembles the sun, which 
we behold always the same glorious and 
luminous object; for the benefit we ce- 
lebrate is, after so many ages, as fresh and 
beautiful as ever, and will always continue 
the same, flourishing in the memories of 
pious people, through the endless revo- 
lutions of eternity. Redemption is the 
brightest mirror by which we contem- 
plate the goodness of the Almighty. Other 
gifts are only mites from the divine trea- 
sury ; but redemption opens, I had al- 
most said exhausts, all the stores of his 
grace. May it be constantly the favourite 
subject of our meditations, more delight- 
ful to our musing minds than applause to 
the ambitious ear! May it be the darling 
theme of our discourse ; sweeter to our 
tongues than the dropping of the honey- 
comb to the taste ! May it be our choicest 
comfort through all the changes of this 
mortal life ; and the reviving cordial, 
even in the last extremities of dissolution 
itself! 



Eight days after the resurrection of our 
great Redeemer, the blessed Jesus shewed 
himself again to his disciples while Tho- 
mas was with them, and upbraided that 
disciple for his unbelief ; but knowing that 
it did not, like that of the Pharisees, pro- 
ceed from a wicked mind, but from an 
honest heart, and a sincere desire of be- 
ing satisfied of the truth, he thus addressed 
himself to his doubting disciple : " Tho- 
mas," said he, " since thou wilt not be 
contented to rely on the testimony of 
others, but must be convinced by the ex- 
perience of thy own senses, behold the 
wounds in my hands, and reach hither thy 
hand, and thrust it into my side, and doubt 
no longer of the realit}^ of my resurrec- 
tion." 

Thomas was immediately induced to be- 
lieve by the invitation of his dear Master, 
and being fully satisfied, he cried out, " I 
am abundantly convinced ; thou art, in- 
deed, my Lord, the very same that wns 
crucified ; and I acknowledge thine al- 
mighty power in having triumphed over 
death, and worship thee as my God." 

To which the blessed Jesus replied : 
" Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, 
thou hast believed that I am really risen 
from the dead. But blessed are they who, 
without such evidence of the senses, shall, 
upon credible testimony, be willing to be- 
lieve and embrace a doctrine which tends 
so greatly to the glory of God, and the 
salvation of the sons of men." 

St. John adds, that the blessed Jesus ap- 
peared, on several other occasions, to his 
disciples, after his resurrection ; and by 
many clear and infallible proofs (not men- 
tioned by the evangelist) fully convinced 
them that he was alive after his passion. 
But those which are mentioned are abun- 
dantly sufficient to excite men to believe 
that Jesus was the Son of God, the great 

Messiah 



AND SAVIOUR, 

Messiah so often foretold by the ancient 
prophets ; and by means of that belief 
they may attain everlasting life in the hap- 
py regions of the heavenly Canaan. 

Our blessed Saviour having, first by the 
angels, and afterwards in person, ordered 
his disciples to repair to their respective ha- 
bitations in Galilee, it is reasonable to 
think they would leave Jerusalem as soon 
as possible. This they accordingly did, 
and, on their arrival at their respective 
places of abode, applied themselves to 
their usual occupations ; and the apostles 
returned to their old trade of fishing on 

o 

the lake of Tiberias. Here they were toil- 
ing vvith their nets very early in the morn- 
ing, and saw Jesus standing on the shore, 
but did not then know him to be their 
Master, as it was somewhat dark, and they 
at a considerable distance from him. He, 
however, called to them, and asked if they 
had taken any fish ? To which they an- 
swered, they had caught nothing. He then 
desired them to let down their net on the 
right side of the boat, and they should not 
be disappointed. 

The disciples, imagining that he might 
be acquainted with the places proper for 
fishing, did as he directed them, and in- 
closed in their net such a prodigious multi- 
tude of fishes, that they were not able to 
draw it into the boat, but were forced to 
drag it after them in the water towards the 
shore. 

It seems they had toiled all the preced- 
ing night to no purpose ; and therefore 
such remarkable success could not fail of 
causing various conjectures among them, 
with regard to the stranger on the shore 
who had given them such happy advice. 
Some of the apostles declared they could 
not imagine who he was ; but others were 
persuaded that this person was no other 
than their great and beloved Master. John 



JESUS CHRIST. 283 

was fully convinced of his being the Lord, 
and accordingly told his thoughts to Simon 
Peter, who, making no doubt of it, girded 
on his fisher's coat, and leaped into the sea, 
in order to get ashore sooner than the boat 
could be brought to land, dragging after it 
a net full of large fishes. 

When the disciples came ashore, they 
found a fire kindled, and on it a fish broil- 
ing, and near it some bread. But neither 
being sufficient for the company, Jesus 
bade them bring some of the fish they had 
now caught, and invited them to eat with 
him. Thus did the blessed Jesus prove 
again to his disciples the reality of his re- 
surrection, not only by eating with them, 
but by working a miracle like that which, 
at the beginning of his ministry, had made 
such an impression upon them, as disposed 
them to be his constant followers. 

This was the third time that Jesus ap- 
peared publicly to a great number of his 
disciples in a body, besides his shewing 
himself at several times to particular per- 
sons, upon several occasions. 

When they had eaten, Jesus reminded 
Peter how diligent and zealous he ought 
to be, in order to wipe off the stain of his 
denying him when he was carried before 
the high-priest: "Simon, son of Jonas," 
said our blessed Saviour to him, " art thou 
more zealous and affectionate in thy love 
towards me than the rest of my disciples ?" 
To which Peter answered, Yea, Lord, 
thou knowest that I love thee. He was 
taught modesty and diffidence by his late 
fall ; and therefore would not compare 
himself with others, but humbly appealed 
to his Master's omniscience, for the since- 
rity of his regard to him. Jesus answered, 
" Express then thy love towards me, by 
the care of my flock committed to thy 
charge. Feed my lambs ;■ feed my sheep. 
Shew thy love to me, by publishing the 

great 



284 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



great salvation I have accomplished ; and 
feeding the souls of faithful believers with 
that food which never perishes, but en- 
dures for ever and ever. 

"I well know, indeed," continued the 
blessed Jesus, " that thou wilt continue my 
faithful shepherd, even until death. For 
the time will come, when thou who now 
girdest on thy fisher's coat voluntarily, and 
stretchest out thy hands to come to me, 
shalt in thine old age be girt by others, 
and forced to stretch out thy hands against 
thy will, in a very different manner, for 
the sake of thy constant profession of my 
religion." 

By these last words, Jesus signified the 
manner of Peter's death, and that he 
should finally suffer martyrdom, for the 
glory of God, and the testimony of the 
truth of the Christian religion. 

The time being now come when the 
disciples were to meet their great Lord 
and Master, according to the messages he 
had sent them by the women, and in all 
probability appointed at some former ap- 
pearance not mentioned by the Evange- 
lists, the brethren set out for the mountain 
in Galilee, perhaps that on which he was 
transfigured. Here five hundred of them 
were gathered together, expecting the joy- 
ful sight of their great Master, after he had 
triumphed over death and the grave ; some 
of them not having yet seen him after his 
resurrection. 

They did not wait long before Jesus ap- 
peared, on which they were seized with 
rapture, their hearts overflowed with glad- 
ness, they approached their kind, their be- 
nevolent Master, and worshipped him. 
Some few, indeed, doubted ; it being na- 
tural for men to be afraid to believe what 
they vehemently wished, lest they should 
indulge themselves in false joys, which va- 
nish like a morning cloud. But Jesus af- 



terwards appeared frequently to them, and 
gave them full satisfaction, and instructed 
them in many things relating to their 
preaching the gospel, establishing the 
church, and spreading it through the 
whole earth. 

CHAP. XLIV. 

Oiw blessed Lord instructs his Disciples in 
what manner they should conduct themselves 
in order to propagate the Doctrine of the 
Gospel. — Promises to assist them in this im- 
portant Business. — Gives them his Jinal 
Blessing, and ascends into Heaven. — Com- 
parison between Moses, the great Lawgiver, 
and our blessed Saviour. — General Beview 
of the Life and Doctrines of the great Re- 
deemer of Mankind. 

A FEW days before the feast of Pen- 
6Ft tecost, or the feast of weeks, the dis- 
ciples went up to Jerusalem, where the 
blessed Jesus made his last appearance to 
them ; and, after instructing them in many 
particulars concerning the kingdom of 
God, and the manner they were to behave 
themselves in propagating the doctrine of 
the gospel, he put them in mind, that, dur- 
ing his abode with them in Galilee, he 
had often told them that all things written 
in the law, the prophets, and the psalms, 
concerning him, were to be exactly ac- 
complished. At the same time, he opened 
their understandings by divine illumination, 
he removed their prejudices by the opera- 
tion of his Spirit, cleared their doubts, im- 
proved their memories, strengthened their 
judgments, and enabled them to discern 
the true meaning of the scriptures. 

Having thus qualified them for receiv- 
ing the truth, he again assured them, that 
both Moses and the prophets had foretold 
that the Messiah was to sutler in the very 

manner 



AND SAVIOUR, 

manner he had suffered ; that he was to rise 
from the dead on the third day, as he had 
done ; and that repentance and remission 
of sins were to be preached in the Mes- 
siah's name among all nations, beginning 
with the Jews in Jerusalem. 

He next delivered unto them their com- 
mission to preach the doctrine of repent- 
ance and remission of sins, in his name, 
among all nations, and to testify unto the 
world the exact accomplishment, in him, 
of all things foretold concerning the Mes- 
siah ; and, to enable them to perform this 
important work, promised to bestow on 
them the gift of the Holy Spirit, which he 
called the Promise of his Father, because 
the Almighty had promised him by his 
prophets. 

Having thus strengthened them for the 
important work they were going to under- 
take, he led them on to the mount of 
Olives, as far as Bethany: where, standing 
on a hill above the town, he told them that 
he was going to ascend to his Father ; for 
which reason they might go courageosuly 
through all the world, and preach the gos- 
pel to every rational creature ; that they 
who believed should be admitted into his 
church by the rite of baptism, in the 
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost ; and be taught, in consequence of 
their baptism, to obey all the precepts he 
had enjoined them ; that such baptized be- 
lievers should receive the pardon of their 
sins, together with eternal life in the happy 
mansions of his Father's kingdom ; but 
such as refused to embrace the doctrines 
of the gospel, should be for ever excluded 
those happy regions, and have their por- 
tion in the lake that burnetii with fire and 
brimstone : that while they were employed 
in this work, he would be constantly with 
them, to assist them by his Spirit, and 
protect them by his providence. Finally, 



JESUS CHRIST. 285 

that those who should, through their preach- 
ing, be induced to believe, should them- 
selves work most astonishing miracles, 
by which the gospel should be propagated 
with the greatest rapidity. 

When the blessed Jesus had spoken 
these things, he lifted up his hands, and 
blessed them. And, in the action of bless- 
ing them, he was parted from them in the 
midst of the day, a shining cloud receiv- 
ing him out of their sight : that is, this 
brilliant cloud encompassed him about, 
and carried him up to heaven ; not sud- 
denly, but at leisure, that they might be- 
hold him departing, and see the proof of 
his ascending into heaven, as he had pro- 
mised them. 

The cloud in which the blessed Jesus 
ascended was more bright and pure than 
the clearest lambent flame, being, as is 
supposed, no other than the Shechinah, or 
glory of the Lord ; the visible symbol of 
the divine presence, which had so often 
appeared to the patriarchs of old; which 
filled the temple at its dedication, and 
which, in its greatest splendour, could not 
be beheld with mortal eyes; for which rea- 
son it is called the light inaccessible. 

As he ascended, the flaming cloud that 
surrounded him marked his passage through 
the air, but gradually lost its magnitude in 
the eyes of those who stood below, till it at 
last vanished, together with their beloved 
Master, out of their sight. 

Thus was the great Redeemer of man- 
kind triumphantly carried into heaven, 
where he now sitteth at the right hand of 
God his Father; to whom be honour, glory, 
and power, forever and ever. Amen. 

Hosanna to the Prince of light, 
That cloth'd himself in clay ; 

Enter'd the iron gates of death, 
And tore the bars away. 

4 C Death 



286 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



Death is no more the king of dread, 
Since Christ our Lord arose ; 

He took the tyrant's sting away, 
And spoil'd our hellish foes. 

See how the Conqu'ror mounts aloft, 

And to his Father flies, 
With scars of honour in his flesh, 

And triumph in his eyes. 

There our exalted Saviour reigns, 
And scatters blessings down ; 

Our Jesus fills the right-hand seat 
Of the celestial throne. 

In this illustrious manner did the great 
Redeemer of mankind depart, after having 
finished the grand work, which he left the 
bosom of his Father to execute ; which 
angels with joy described was to happen, 
and which, through eternity to come, shall, 
at periods the most immensely distant 
from the time of its execution, be looked 
back upon with inexpressible delight, by 
every inhabitant of heaven ; for though the 
minute affairs of time may vanish altoge- 
ther and be lost, when they are removed 
far back by the endless progression of 
duration, this object is such, that no dis- 
tance, however great, can lessen. The 
kingdom of heaven is erected on the in- 
carnation and sufferings of the Son of God, 
the kingdom and city of the Almighty, 
comprehending all the people of God in 
the universe, made happy by goodness 
and love, and therefore none of them can 
ever forget the foundation on which their 
happiness stands established. The human 
beings in particular, recovered by the la- 
bour of the Son of God, will view their 
deliverer, and look back on his stupendous 
undertaking, with the highest rapture, 
while they are feasting without interrup- 
tion on its delicious fruits. The angels, 
likewise, the celestial inhabitants of the 



city of God, will contemplate it with per- 
petual pleasure, as the happy means of re- 
covering their kindred that were lost, and 
bringing them to a joint and proper sub- 
jection to Him who reigneth for ever, and 
whose favour is better than life itself. 

Thus have we followed our dear Re- 
deemer thro' all the transactions of his life, 
and enlarged on the stupendous miracle of 
his resurrection, on which glorious event 
the whole Christian doctrine is founded. 

As the similarity between Christ and 
the lawgiver Moses (whom the divine 
Redeemer mentioned to his disciples but a 
short time before his ascension into hea- 
ven) is so very remarkable, we shall, as an 
illustration of the glorious subject, point 
out a few instances, which will evince that 
the prophecies of old were only to be 
completed in the sufferings and death of 
Christ. 

Moses was the most distinguished of all 
the prophets, and his greatest prophecy 
was, that of another prophet to be raised 
up like unto himself. He was, at the time 
of this prediction, about to leave his peo- 
ple; and therefore, to give them some com- 
fort, he promised them another prophet. 
The Lord thy God, said he, will raise up unto 
thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy 
brethren, like unto me ; unto Mm ye shall 
hearken, Deut. xviii. 15. 

That this person, of whom Moses pro- 
phesied, was the great Redeemer of man- 
kind, is amply evident ; and that Moses 
resembled Christ in a much greater degree 
than any other person ever did, will appear 
from the following circumstances. 

Both Moses and Christ shewed signs and 
wonders; and in these respects none of the 
ancient prophets were like unto Moses. 
None of them were lawgivers ; they only in- 
terpreted and enforced the laws of Moses. 

None 



AND SAVIOUR, 



JESUS CHRIST. 



28? 



None of them had such clear communica- 
tion with God: they all saw visions, and 
dreamed dreams. Moses and Christ are the 
only two who so perfectly resembled each 
other in these respects. 

Moses fled from his country to escape 
the hands of the king of Egypt: so did 
Christ, when his parents went into Egypt. 
Afterwards the Lord said unto Moses, in Mi- 
dian, Go, return into Egypt ; for all the men 
are dead which sought thy life, Exod. iv. 19- 
so the angel of the Lord said to Joseph, in 
nearly the same words, Arise, and take the 
young child, and go into the land of Israel; 
for they are dead which sought the young 
child's life, Matt. ii. 20. Pointing him out, 
as it were, for that Prophet who should 
arise like unto Moses. 

Moses refused to be called the son of 
Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suf- 
fer affliction ; Christ refused to be made 
king, choosing rather to suffer the like. 

Moses (says St. Stephen) was learned in 
all the wisdom of the Egyptians ; and Jose- 
phus says, that he was a very forward and 
accomplished youth, and had wisdom and 
knowledge above his years. St. Luke ob- 
serves of Christ, that he increased (betimes) 
in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God 
and man; and his discourses in the temple 
with the doctors, when he was but twelve 
years old, were a proof of it. 

Moses was not only a lawgiver, a pro- 
phet, and a worker of miracles, but a king 
and a priest: in all these offices the likeness 
between Moses and Christ was singular. 

Moses brought darkness over the land ; 
the sun withdrew his light at Christ's cru- 
cifixion : and as the darkness which spread 
over Egypt was followed by the destruc- 
tion of their first-born, and of Pharaoh 
and his host ; so the darkness at Christ's 
death was the forerunner of the destruc- 
tion of the Jews 



Moses foretold the calamities which 
would befall the nation for their disobe- 
dience : so did Christ. 

The spirit which was in Moses was con 
ferred in some degree upon the seventy 
elders, and they prophesied : Christ con- 
ferred miraculous powers on his seventy 
disciples. 

Moses was victorious over powerful kings 
and great nations : so was Christ, by the 
effects of his religion, and by the fall of 
those who persecuted his church. 

Moses conquered Amalek by holding up 
both his hands : Christ overcame his and 
our enemies when his hands were fastened 
to the cross. 

Moses interceded for transgressors, and 
caused an atonement to be made for them, 
and stopped the wrath of God ; so did 
Christ. 

Moses ratified a covenant between God 
and the people, by sprinkling them with 
blood: Christ with his own blood. 

Moses desired to die for the people, and 
prayed that God would forgive them, or 
blot him out of his book : Christ did more ; 
he died for sinners. 

Moses instituted the passover, when a 
lamb was sacrificed, none of whose bones 
were to be broken, and whose blood pro- 
tected the people from destruction : Christ 
was the paschal Lamb. 

Moses lifted up the serpent, that they 
who looked upon it might be healed of 
their mortal wounds : by proper looking 
up to Christ, all such will be healed. 

All the affection of Moses towards the 
people, all his cares and toils on their ac- 
count, were repaid by them with ingrati- 
tude, murmuring, and rebellion : the same 
returns the Jews made to Christ for all his 
benefits. 

Moses was ill used by his own family ; 
his brother and sister rebelled against him : 

there 



288 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



there was a time when Christ's own bre- 
thren believed not on him, and his disciples 
forsook him. 

Moses had a very wicked and perverse 
generation committed to his care and con- 
duct ; and, to enable him to rule them, mi- 
raculous powers were given to him, and he 
used his utmost endeavours to make the 
people obedient to God, and to save them 
from ruin, but in vain ; in the space of 
forty- two years they all fell in the wilder- 
ness, except two : Christ also was given to 
a generation not less wicked and perverse, 
his instructions and his miracles were lost 
upon most of them, and in about the same 
space of time, after they had rejected him, 
they were destroyed. 

Moses was very meek above all the men 
that were on the earth : so was Christ. 

The people could not enter into the land 
of promise until Moses was dead : by the 
death of Christ the kingdom of heaven was 
opened to believers. 

Moses enlightened the Jews under the 
dispensation of the old law : Christ en- 
lightened the Christians under the gospel. 

Moses did great wonders in the land of 
Egypt : Christ did great miracles in Judea. 

In the deaths of Moses and Christ there is 
also a resemblance in some circumstances : 
Moses died, in some sense, for the iniquities 
of the people; it was their rebellion which 
was the occasion of it, which drew down 
the displeasure of God upon them and upon 
him. Moses went up in the sight of the 
people to the top of mount Nebo, and there 
he died, when he was in perfect vigour, 
when his eye was not dim, nor his natural force 
abated: Christ suffered for the sins of men, 
and was led up, in the presence of the peo- 
ple, to Mount Calvary, where he died in 
the flower of his age, and when he was in 
his full natural strength. 

Neither Moses nor Christ, as far as we 



can collect from sacred history, were ever 
sick, or felt any bodily decay or infirmity, 
which would have rendered them unfit for 
the toils they underwent ; their sufferings 
were of another kind. 

Lastly, as Moses, a little before his death, 
promised another prophet ; so Christ, before 
his death, promised another Comforter. 

Moses, says St. Ambrose, was the figure 
of that Preceptor that was to come; who 
should preach the gospel, fulfil the Old 
Testament, build the New, and feed the 
people with celestial aliment. 

Such are the comparisons relative to 
the great resemblance between Moses and 
Christ ; but the greatest similitude consists 
in their both being lawgivers, which no 
other prophet ever was. They may re- 
semble each other in many other circum- 
stances, and a fruitful imagination may 
strike upon farther resemblances : but 
what we have been mentioning may suf- 
fice. And we may ask, Is this similitude 
between Moses and Christ the effect ot 
mere chance ? Let us search all the re- 
cords of universal history, and see if we 
can find a man who was so like to Christ 
as Moses was. If we cannot find such an 
one, then have we found him of zohom Moses 
in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus 
of Nazareth, the Son of God. 

We shall conclude this chapter with a 
few observations on the general conduct or. 
our blessed Redeemer, during his abode 
with men on earth. 

The human character of the blessed Jesus 
as it results from the account given of him 
by the evangelists, (for they have not for- 
mally drawn it up,) is entirely different from 
that of all other men whatsoever; for where- 
as they have selfish passions deeply rooted 
in their breasts, and are influenced by them 
in almost every thing they do, Jesus was 

so 



AND SAVIOUR, 

so entirely free from them, that the most se- 
vere scrutiny cannot furnish one single ac- 
tion, in the whole course of his life, wherein 
he consulted his own interest only. No ; 
he was influenced by very different motives : 
the present happiness, and eternal welfare, 
of sinners, regulated his conduct ; and while 
others followed their respective occupa- 
tions, Jesus had no other business than that 
of doing the will of his Father, and pro- 
moting the happiness of the sons of men. 
Nor did he wait till he was solicited to ex- 
tend his benevolent hand to the distressed : 
he went about doing good, and always ac- 
counted it more blessed to give than to receiver 
resembling God rather than man. Bene- 
volence was the very life of his soul : he not 
only did good to objects presented to him 
for relief ; but he industriously sought them 
out, in order to extend his compassionate 
assistance. 

It is common for persons of the most ex- 
alted faculties to be elated with success and 
applause, or dejected by censure and dis- 
appointments ; but the blessed Jesus was 
never elated by the one, or depressed by 
the other. He was never more courageous 
than when he met with the greatest oppo- 
sition and cruel treatment ; nor more hum- 
ble than when the sons of men worshipped 
at his feet. 

He came into the world inspired with the 
grandest purpose that ever was formed, 
that of saving from eternal perdition, not a 
single nation, but the whole world ; and in 
the execution of it went through the longest 
and heaviest train of labours that ever was 
sustained, with a constancy and resolution, 
on which no disadvantageous impression 
could be made by any accident whatever. 
Calumny, threatenings, bad success, with 
many other evils, constantly attending him, 
served only to quicken his endeavours in 
this glorious enterprise, which he nnceas- 



JESUS CHRIST. 289 

ingly pursued, even till he had finished it 
by his death. 

The generality of mankind are prone to 
retaliate injuries received, and all seem to 
take a satisfaction in complaining of the 
cruelties of those who oppress them ; where- 
as the whole of Christ's labours breathed 
nothing but meekness, patience, and for- 
giveness, even to his bitterest enemies, and 
in the midst of the most excruciating tor- 
ments. The words, Father, forgive them, 
for they know not what they do, uttered by 
him when his enemies were nailing him to 
the cross, fitly express the temper which he 
maintained through the whole course of his 
life, even when assaulted by the heaviest 
provocations. He was destined to suffer- 
ings here below, in order that he might 
raise his people to honour, glory, and im- 
mortality, in the realms of bliss above ; 
and therefore patiently, yea, joyfulty, sub- 
mitted to all that the malice of earth and 
hell could inflict. He was vilified, that we 
might be honoured ; he died, that we might 
live for ever and ever. 

To conclude : the greatest and best men 
have discovered the degeneracy and cor- 
ruption of human nature, and shewn them 
to have been nothing more than men ; but 
it was otherwise with Jesus. He was supe- 
rior to all the men that ever lived, both 
with regard to the purity of his manners, 
and the perfection of his holiness. He 
was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate 
from sinners. 

Whether we consider him as a teacher, 
or as a man, he did no sin, neither was guile 
found in his mouth. His whole life was per- 
fectly free from spot or weakness ; at the 
same time it was remarkable for the great- 
est and most extensive exercises of purity 
and goodness. But never to have commit- 
ted the least sin, in word or in deed; never 
to have uttered any sentiment that could 

4 D be 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



290 

be censured, upon the various topics of re- 
ligion and morality which were the daily 
subjects of his discourses; and that through 
the course of a life filled with action, and 
led under the observation of many enemies, 
who had always access to converse with 
him, and who often came to find fault ; is a 
pitch of perfection evidently above the 
reach of human nature : and consequently 
he who possessed it must have been divine. 

Such was the Person who is the subject 
of the evangelical history. If the reader, 
by reviewing his life, doctrine, and mi- 
racles, as they are here represented to him, 
united into one series, has a clearer idea 
of these things than before, or observes a 
beauty in his actions thus linked together, 
which, taken separately, do not appear so 
fully ; if he feels himself touched by the 
character of Jesus in general, or with any 
of his sermons and actions in particular, 
thus simply delineated in writing, whose 
principal charms are the beauties of truth ; 
above all, if his dying so generously for 
men strikes him with admiration, or fills 
him with hope, in the prospect of that par- 
don which is thereby purchased for the 
world; let him seriously consider with him- 
self, what improvement he ought to make 
of the divine goodness. 

Jesus, by his death, hath set open the 
gate of immortality to the sons of men ; 
and by his word, spirit, and example, gra- 
ciously offers to make them meet for the 
glorious rewards in the kingdom of the 
heavenly Canaan, and to conduct them 
into the inheritance of the saints in light. 
Let us, therefore, remember, that being 
born under the dispensation of his gospel, 
we have, from our earliest years, enjoyed 
the best means of securing to ourselves an 
interest ' in' that favour of God, which is 
life ; and that loving-kindness, which is 
better than life. 



We have been called to aspire after an 
exaltation to the nature and felicity of the 
Almighty, exhibited to mortal eyes in the 
man Christ Jesus, to fire us with the no- 
blest ambition. His gospel teaches us 
that we are made for eternity ; and that 
our present life is, to our future existence, 
as infancy is to manhood. But, as in the 
former, many things are to be learned, 
many hardships to be endured, many ha- 
bits to be acquired, and that by a course 
of exercises which in themselves, though 
painful, and possibly useless, to the child, 
yet are necessary to fit him for the busi- 
ness and enjoyments of manhood; so, while 
we remain in this infancy of human life, 
things are to be learned, hardships to be 
endured, and habits to be acquired, by a 
laborious discipline, which, however pain- 
ful, must be undergone, because necessary 
to fit us for the employments and plea- 
sures of our riper existence in the realms 
above ; always remembering, that what- 
ever our trials may be in this world, if we 
ask for God's assistance, he has promised 
to give it. Inflamed, therefore, with the 
love of immortality and its joys, let us sub- 
mit ourselves to our heavenly Teacher, and 
learn of him those lessons, which alone can 
render life pleasant, death desirable, and 
fill eternity with ecstatic joys. 

CHAP. XLV. 

Remarks on the peculiar Nature of the 
Christian Religion, the Principles it in- 
culcates, and its Fitness to render Men 
holy and humble here, and happily glorified 
hereafter. 




E cannot close this delightful scene 
of the life of our dear Lord and Sa- 



viour more comfortably, than by consider- 
ing the benefits resulting from a due at- 
tendance 



AND SAVIOUR 



JESUS CHRIST. 



291 



tendance to his doctrines by all who shall, 
by faith, receive and embrace the same. 

Probably none have been greater ene- 
mies to the progress of religion than those 
who delineate it in a gloomy and terrifying 
form; nor any guilty of a more injurious 
calumny against the gospel, than those who 
represent its precepts as rigorous imposi- 
tions and unnecessary restraints. 

True religion is the perfection of human 
nature, and the foundation of uniform 
exalted pleasure; of public order, and pri- 
vate happiness. Christianity is the most 
excellent, and the most useful, institution, 
having the promise of the life that now is, and 
of that which is to come. It is the voice of 
reason, it is also the language of scripture, 
The ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness, 
and all her paths are peace : and our blessed 
Saviour himself assures us, that his pre- 
cepts are easy, and the burden of his re- 
ligion light. 

The Christian religion is a rational ser- 
vice, a worship in spirit and in truth, a 
worship worthy of the majesty of the Al- 
mighty to receive, and of the nature of 
man to pay. It comprehends all we ought 
to believe, and all we ought to practise; 
its positive rites are but few, of plain and 
easy significancy, and manifesly adapted 
to establish a sense of our obligation to 
God. 

The gospel places religion, not in ab- 
struse speculation, and metaphysical sub- 
tilties ; not in outward show and tedious, 
ceremony ; not in superstitious austerities, 
and enthusiastic visions ; but in purity of 
heart, and holiness of life. The sum of our 
duty, according to our great Master him- 
self, consists in the love of God and of our 
neighbour; according to St. Paul, in deny- 
ing ungodliness and worldly lusts, and in 
living soberly, righteously, and godly, in 
this present evil world; according to St. 



James, in visiting the fatherless and widow 
in affliction, and in keeping ourselves un- 
spotted from the world. This is the con- 
stant strain and tenor of the gospel. This 
it inculcates most earnestly, and on this it 
lays the greatest stress. 

But is the Christian system only a re- 
publication of the law of nature, or merely 
a refined system of morality ? No, cer- 
tainly; it is a great deal more. It is an 
act of grace; a stupendous plan of Provi- 
dence, designed for the recovery of man- 
kind from a state of degradation and ruin, 
to the favour of the Almighty, and to the 
hopes of a happy immortality, through a 
Mediator. 

Under this dispensation, true religion 
consists in repentance towards God, and in 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the person 
appointed, by the supreme authority of 
heaven and earth, to reconcile apostate 
man to his offended Creator; as a Sacri- 
fice for Sin ; our vital Head, and go- 
verning Lord. This is religion, as we are 
Christians. And what hardships, what ex- 
action, is there in all this ? Surely none. 
Nay, the practice of religion is much easier 
than the servitude of sin. 

Our rational powers, all will readily 
agree, are dreadfully impaired, and the 
soul weakened, by sin. The animal pas- 
sions are strong and corrupt, and oppose 
the dictates of the Spirit of God : objects 
of sense make powerful impressions on the 
mind. We are, in every situation, sur- 
rounded with many snares and tempta- 
tions. In such a disordered state of things, 
we cannot please God, till created anew in 
Christ Jesus unto good works. We must 
be born again ; born from above. 

The God of all grace has planted in the 
human breast a quick sense of good and 
evil ; a faculty which strongly dictates 
right and wrong : and though by the 

strength 



292 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



strength of appetite and warmth of passion 
men are often hurried into immoral prac- 
tices, yet, in the beginning, especially 
when there has been the advantage of a 
good education, it is usually with reluc- 
tance and opposition of mind. What in- 
ward struggles precede ! what bitter pangs 
attend their sinful excesses ! what guilty 
blushes and uneasy fears ! what frightful 
prospects and pale reviews ! Terrors are 
upon them, and a jire not blown consumeth 
them. To make a mock at sin, and to com- 
mit iniquity without remorse, is, in some 
instances, an attainment that requires 
length of time, and much painful labour; 
more labour than is requisite to attain that 
salvation which is the glory of the man, 
the ornament of the Christian, and the 
chief of his happiness. 

The soul can no more be reconciled to 
acts of wickedness and injustice, than the 
body to excess, but by suffering many bit- 
ter pains, and cruel attacks. 

The mouth of conscience may, indeed, 
oe stopped for a while by false principles ; 
its sacred whispers may be drowned by the 
noise of company, and stifled by the en- 
tertainments of sense ; but this principle 
of conscience is so deeply rooted in human 
nature, and, at the same time, her voice is 
so clear and strong, that the sinner's arts 
will be unable to lull her into a lasting se- 
curity. 

When the hour of calamity arrives, when 
sickness seizes, and death approaches the 
sinner, conscience then constrains him to 
listen to her accusations, and will not suf- 
fer the temples of his head to take any rest. 
There is no peace to the wicked; the founda- 
tions of peace are subverted ; they are at 
utter enmity with their reason, with their 
conscience, and with their God. 

Not so is the case of true religion. For 
when religion, pure and genuine, forms 



the temper and governs the life, con- 
science applauds, and peace takes her 
residence in the breast. The soul is in its 
proper state. There is order and regula- 
rity both in the faculties and actions. Con- 
scious of its own integrity, and secure of 
the Divine approbation, the soul enjoys a 
calmness not to be described. But why do 
I call this happy frame calmness only ? It 
is far more than mere calmness. The air 
may be calm, and the day overcast with 
thick mists and dark clouds. The pious 
and virtuous mind resembles a serene day, 
enlightened and enlivened with the bright- 
est rays of the sun. Though all without 
may be clouds and darkness, there is light 
in the heart of a devout man. He is satis- 
fied with favour, and jilled with peace and joy 
in believing. In the concluding scene, the 
awful moment of dissolution, all is peace- 
ful and serene. The immortal part quits 
its tenement of clay, with the well- 
grounded hope of ascending to happiness 
and glory. 

Nor does the gospel enjoin any duty 
but what is fit and reasonable. It calls 
upon all its professors to practise reverence, 
submission, love, and gratitude, to God ; 
justice, truth, and universal benevolence, 
to men ; and to maintain the government 
of our minds. And what has any one to 
object against this ? From the least to 
the greatest commandment of our dear Re- 
deemer, there is not one which impartial 
reason can find fault with. His law is per- 
fect; his precepts are true and righteous alto- 
gether. Not even those excepted which 
require us to love our enemies, to deny our- 
selves, and to take up our cross. To forgive 
an injury is more generous and manly than 
to revenge it ; to control a licentious ap- 
petite, than to indulge it ; to suffer poverty, 
reproach, and even death itself, in the sa- 
cred cause of truth and integrity, is much 

wiser 



AND SAVIOUR, 

wiser and better, than, by base complian- 
ces, to make shipwreck of faith and a good 
conscience. 

Thus in a storm at sea, or a conflagration 
on the land, a man with pleasure abandons 
his lumber to secure his jewels. Piety and 
virtue are the wisest and most reasonable 
things in the world ; vice and wickedness, 
the most irrational and absurd. 

The all-wise Author of our being hath 
so framed our natures, and placed us in 
such relations, that there is nothing vicious, 
but what is injurious ; nothing virtuous, 
but what is advantageous to our present 
interest, both with respect to body and 
mind. Meekness and humility, patience 
and universal charity, and grace, give a joy 
unknown to transgressors. 

The divine virtues of truth, equity, and 
love, are the only bands of friendship, the 
only supports of society. Temperance and 
sobriety are the best preservatives of health 
and strength ; but sin and debauchery im- 
pair the body, consume the substance, re- 
duce to poverty, and form the direct path 
to an immature and untimely death. Now 
this is the chief excellency of all laws, and 
what will always render their burden plea- 
sant and delightful, that they enjoin no- 
thing unbecoming or injurious. 

Besides, to render our duty easy, we 
have the example, as well as the com- 
mands, of the blessed Jesus. The masters 
of morality among the heathens gave ex- 
cellent rules for the regulation of men's 

o 

manners ; but they wanted either the ho- 
nesty or the courage to try their own ar- 
guments upon themselves. It was a strong 
presumption that the yoke of the Scribes 
and Pharisees was grievous, when they laid 
heavy burdens upon mens shoulders, which 
they themselves refused to touch with one 
of their fingers. Not thus our great law- 
giver, Jesus Christ the righteous. His be- 



JESUS CHRIST. 293 

haviour was, in all respects, conformable to 
his doctrine. His devotion, how sublime 
and ardent! benevolence towards men, 
how great and diffusive ! He was in his 
life an exact pattern of innocence ; for he 
did no sin, neither zms guile found in his 
mouth. In the Son of God incarnate, is 
exhibited the brightest, the fairest resem- 
blance of the Father, that earth or heaven 
ever beheld ; an example peculiarly persua- 
sive, calculated to inspire resolution, and to 
animate us to use our utmost endeavours to 
imitate the divine pattern, the example of 
the author and finisher of our faith, of him 
who loved us, and gave himself for us. Our 
profession and character, as Christians, 
obliges us to make his example the model 
of our lives. Ever}^ motive of decency, 
gratitude, and interest, constrain us to 
tread the paths he trod before us. 

We should also remember that our bur- 
den is easy; because God, who knoweth 
whereof we are made, who considereth that we 
are but dust, is ever ready to assist us. The 
Heathen sages themselves had some notion 
of this assistance, though guided only by 
the glimmering lamp of reason. But what 
they looked upon as probable, the gospel 
clearly and strongly asserts. We there 
hear the apostle exhorting, Let us come 
boldly to the throne of grace, that we may 
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time 
of need. We there hear the blessed Jesus 
himself arguing; in this convincing manner; 

op o 

If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
unto your children, how much more shall your 
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them 
that ask him ? 

I would not here be understood to mean, 
that the agency of the Spirit is irresistible, 
and lays a necessitating bias on all the fa- 
culties and affections of men. Were this 
the case, precepts and prohibitions, pro- 
mises and threatenings, would signify no- 

4 E 



294 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



thing; and duty and obligation would be 
words without a meaning. The Spirit as- 
sisteth in a manner agreeably to the frame 
of human nature ; not controlling the free 
use of reason, but by assisting the under- 
standing, influencing the will, and renewing 
the affections. But though we may not 
be able to explain the mode of his opera- 
tions, the Scriptures warrant us to assert, 
that, when men are renewed and prepared 
for heaven, it is through the scinctvfication of 
the Spirit, and belief of the truth. How enliven- 
ing the thought ! how encouraging the mo- 
tive ! We are not left to struggle alone 
with the difficulties which attend the prac- 
tice of religion, in the present imperfect 
state. The merciful Father of our spirits is 
ever near to help our infirmities, to enlight- 
en the understanding, to strengthen good 
resolutions, and, in concurrence with our 
own endeavours, to make us conquerors 
over all opposition. Faithful is he to his 
promises, and will not suffer the sincere 
and faithful to be tempted above what they 
are able to bear. What can be desired 
more than this ? To promote the hap- 
piness of his people, every thing is clone 
that is requisite ; his grace is all-sufficient, 
his Spirit is able to conduct us through this 
vale of tears to never-fading bliss. 

We should also remember that the great 
doctrine of the gospel, concerning the in- 
finite mercy of God to all penitents through 
Christ Jesus, greatly contributes to the con- 
solation of Christians. Let it be granted, 
that the hope of pardon is essential to the 
religion of fallen creatures, and one of its 
first principles ; yet considering the doubts 
and suspicions which are apt to arise in a 
mind conscious of guilt, it is undoubtedly 
a great and inestimable favour, to be re- 
lieved in this respect by a messenger from 
Omnipotence himself. This is our hap- 
piness. We are not left to depend upon 



consequential reasonings, which the bulk 
of mankind are little used to ; but we are 
assured, that upon our true repentance, 
and believing in Christ, we shall, through 
his mediation, receive the full remission of 
past sins, and be restored to the same state 
of favour with our Maker, as if we had ne- 
ver transgressed his laws. Here the gos- 
pel triumphs. With these assurances it 
abounds. Upon this head the declaration 
of our blessed Saviour and his apostles are 
so express and full, that every one who 
believes them, and knows himself to be a 
true penitent, ought to banish every doubt 
and fear, and rejoice with joy unspeakable. 
Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest, Matt, 
xi. 28. All maimer of sin and blasphemy 
shall be forgiven unto man, Matt. xii. 31. 
Be it known unto you, therefore, men and 
brethren, that through this man is preached 
unto you the forgiveness of sins : and by him 
all that believe are justified from all things, 
from which we could not be justified by the 
law of Moses, Acts xiii. 38, 39- The blood 
of Jesus cleanseth from all sin. What grace 
and favour is this ! Who can dwell upon 
the transporting theme too long ! Now 
our way is plain before us, and the burden 
we are to bear is made easy. Our sins are 
pardonable, if repented of and forsaken. 

Consider this, all ye who have never 
yet regarded religion, but pursued a course 
of vice and sensuality all your lives long. 
Though your conduct has been base to the 
last degree, your case is not desperate. 
Far from it. The God whom you have so 
highly offended commiserates your errors, 
is ever ready to extend his pardoning mer- 
cy to his most degenerate creatures, upon 
their faith and repentance ; and is in Christ 
Jesus reconciling the world unto himself, not 
imputing unto penitent sinners their tres- 
passes. Let the wicked, therefore, forsake 



AND SAVIOUR, 

his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; 
and let him return unto the Lord, and he will 
have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he 
will abundantly pardon, Isa. lv. 7- 

Another particular which renders the 
Christian religion delightful, is its leading 
us to the perfect, eternal life of heaven. 
It cannot be denied, but that we may 
draw from the light of reason strong pre- 
sumptions of a future state. The present 
existence does not look like an entire 
scene, but rather like the infancy of hu- 
man nature, which is capable of arriving 
at a much higher degree of maturity : but 
whatever solid foundation the doctrine of 
a future state may have in nature and rea- 
son, certain it is, through the habitual neg- 
lect of reflection, and the force of irregular 
passions, this doctrine was, before the com- 
ing of our blessed Saviour, very much dis- 
figured, and in a great measure lost, among 
the sons of men. 

In the Heathen world, a future state of 
rewards and punishments was a matter of 
mere speculation and uncertainty ; some- 
times hoped for, sometimes doubted of, 
and sometimes absolutely denied. The 
law of Moses, though of divine original, is 
chiefly enforced by promises of temporal 
blessings ; and, even in the writings of the 
prophets, a future immortality is very 
sparingly mentioned, and obscurely repre- 
sented : but the doctrine of our Saviour 
hath brought life and immortality to light. 
In the gospel we have a distinct account of 
another world, attended with many en- 
gaging circumstances ; about which the de- 
cisions of reason were dark and confused. 
We have the testimony of the Author of 
our religion, who was raised from the dead, 
and who afterwards, in the presence of his 
disciples, ascended into heaven. In the 
New Testament it is expressly declared, 
that good men, when absent from the body, 



JESUS CHRIST. 295 

are present with the Lord. Here we are 
assured of the resurrection of the body in 
a glorious form, clothed with immortal 
vigour, suited to the active nature of the 
animating spirit, and assisting its most en- 
larged operations and incessant progress 
towards perfection. Here we are assured, 
that the righteous shall go into life everlasting ; 
that they shall enter into the kingdom of 
the heavenly Canaan, where no ignorance 
shall cloud the understanding, no vice dis- 
turb the will. In these regions of perfec- 
tion, nothing but love shall possess the 
soul ; nothing but gratitude employ the 
tongue : there the righteous shall be united 
to an innumerable company of angels, 
and to the general assembly and church of 
the first-born ; there they shall see their 
exalted Redeemer at the right hand of 
Omnipotence, and sit down with him on 
his throne ; there shall they be admitted 
into the immediate presence of the su- 
preme Fountain of life and happiness, 
and, beholding his face, be farther changed 
into the same image, from glory to glory. 
Here language — here imagination fails me ! 
It requires the genius, the knowledge, and 
the pen of an angel, to paint the happiness, 
and blissful scene, of the New Jerusalem, 
which human eyes cannot behold, till this 
mortal body shall be purified from its cor- 
ruption, and dressed in the robes of immor- 
tality : eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nei- 
ther hath it entered into the heart to conceive, 
the joys which God hath prepared for them 
that love him. 

What is the heaven of the Heathens, 
compared with the heaven of the Chris- 
tians? The hope, the prospect of this, is 
sufficient to reconcile us to all the difficul- 
ties that may attend our progress, sweeten 
all our labours, alleviate every grief, and 
silence every murmur. 

But why, says the libertine, in the gaiety 

of 



296 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



of his heart, should there be any diffi- 
culties or restraint at all? God hath made 
nothing in vain. The appetites he hath 
planted in the human breast are to be gra- 
tified. To deny or restrain^ them, is igno- 
minious bondage ; but to give full scope to 
every desire and passion of the heart, 
without check or control, is true manly 
freedom. 

In opposition to this loose and careless 
way of reasoning, let it be considered, 
that the liberty of a rational creature doth 
not consist in an entire exemption from all 
control, but in following the dictates of 
reason, as the governing principle, and in 
keeping the various passions in due subor- 
dination. To follow the regular motion 
of those affections which the wise Creator 
hath implanted within us, is our duty ; 
but as our natural desires, in this state of 
trial, are too often irregular, we are bound 
to restrain their excesses, and not to in- 
dulge them, but in a strict subserviency to 
the integrity and peace of our minds, nnd 
to the order and happiness of human so- 
ciety established in the world. Those who 
allow the supreme command to be usurped 
by sensual and brutal appetites, may pro- 
mise themselves liberty, but are truly and ab- 
solutely the servants of corruption. To be 
vicious, is to be enslaved. We behold with 
pity those miserable objects that are chain- 
ed in the galleys, or confined in dark pri- 
sons and loathsome dungeons : but much 
more abject and vile is the slavery of the 
sinner! No slavery of the body is equal to 
the bondage of the mind ; no chains press 
so closely, or gall so cruelly, as the fetters 
of sin, which corrode the very substance 
of the soul, and fret every facult}^ 

It must, indeed, be confessed, that there 
are some profligates, so hardened by cus- 
tom, as to be past all feeling ; and, because 
insensible of their bondage, boast of this 



insensibility as a mark of their native free- 
dom, and of their happiness. Vain men! 
they might extol, with equal propriety, the 
peculiar happiness of an apoplexy, or the 
profound tranquillity of a lethargy. 

Thus have we endeavoured to place, in 
a plain and conspicuous light, some of the 
peculiar excellencies of the Christian reli- 
gion : and from hence many useful reflec- 
tions will naturally arise in the mind of 
every attentive reader. It is the religion 
of Jesus that hath removed idolatry and su- 
perstition, and brought immortality to light, 
when concealed under the vail of darkness 
almost impenetrable. This hath set the 
great truths of religion in a clear and con- 
spicuous point of view, and proposed new 
and powerful motives to influence our 
minds, and to determine our conduct. No- 
thing is enjoined to be believed but what is 
worthy of God, nothing to be practised but 
what is friendly to man. All the doctrines 
of the gospel are rational and consistent ; 
all its precepts are truly wise, just, and 
good. The gospel contains nothing griev- 
ous to an ingenuous mind ; it debars us 
from nothine, but doins; harm to ourselves 
or to our fellow-creatures ; and permits us 
to range any where, but in the paths of 
danger and destruction. It only requires 
us to accept the remedy provided, to act 
up to its excellent commands, and to pre- 
fer to the vanishing pleasures of sin, the 
smiles of a reconciled God, and an eternal 
weight of glory. And is this a rigorous ex- 
action, a heavy burden not to be endured ? 
How can sinful mortals harbour so unwor- 
thy a thought ? 

Surely no man, who is a real friend to 
the cause of religion, and to the interest of 
mankind, can ever be an enemy to Chris- 
tianity, if he truly understands it, and 
seriously reflects on its wise and useful ten- 
dency. It conducteth us to our journey's 



AND SAVIOUR, 

end by the plainest and securest path ; 
where the steps are not straitened, and where 
he that runneth stumbleth not. Let us who 
live under this last, and most gracious, dis- 
pensation of God to mankind, count all 
things but loss for the excellency of the know- 
ledge of Christ Jesus our Lord ; and not suf- 
fer ourselves, by the slight cavils of unbe- 
lievers, to be moved away from the hope of 
the gospel. Let us demonstrate that we be- 
lieve the superior excellenc}^ of the Chris- 
tian dispensation, by depending on Christ, 
and conforming to his precepts. Let us 
shew that we are Christians in deed and in 
truth; not by endless disputes about trifles, 
and the transports of a blind zeal, but by 
abounding in those fruits of righteousness, 
which are through Christ to the praise and 
glory of God. 

From what has been said, we may clearly 
perceive how groundless all those preju- 
dices are, which some conceive against reli- 
gion, as if it were a peevish morose scheme, 
burdensome to human nature, and incon- 
sistent with the true enjoyment of life. 
Such sentiments are too apt to prevail in the 
heat of youth, when the spirits are brisk and 
lively, and the passions warm and impetu- 
ous; but it is wholly a mistake, and a mis- 
take of the most dangerous tendency. The 
truth is, there is no pleasure like that of a 
good conscience ; no real peace but what 
results from the sense of the divine favour. 
This strengthens the mind, and can alone 
support it under all the various and un- 
equal scenes of the present state of trial. 
This 1 ays a sure foundation of an easy com- 
fortable life, of a serene peaceful death, 
and of eternal joy and happiness hereafter : 
whereas vice is ruinous to all our most va- 
luable interests; spoils the native beauty, 
and subverts the order, of the soul; renders 
us the scorn of man, the rejected of God, 
and, without timely repentance, will rob 



JESUS CHRIST. 297 

us of a happy eternity. Religion is the 
health, the liberty, and the happiness, of 
the soul ; sin is the disease, the servitude, 
and destruction, of it. 

If this be not sufficient to convince you, 
let me lead 3'ou into the chamber of an ha- 
bitual rioter, the lewd debauchee, worn 
out in the cause of iniquity, his bones full 
of the sins of his youth, that from his own 
mouth, as he lies on his expiring bed, you 
may learn that the way of transgression is 
hard; and that, however sweet sin may be 
in the commission, it strikes like a serpent, 
and bites like an adder. 

I am going, reader, to represent to you 
the last moments of a person of high birth 
and spirit ; of great parts and strong pas- 
sions ; every way accomplished, but un- 
happily attached to those paths which lead 
to vice and destruction. 

His unkind treatment was the death ot 
a most amiable wife ; and his monstrous 
extravagance, in effect, disinherited his 
only child. And surely the death-bed of 
a profligate is next in horror to that abyss 
to which it leads. It has the most of hell 
that is visible upon earth, and he that hath 
seen it hath more than faith to confirm him 
in his creed. I see now, (says the worthy 
divine from whom I shall borrow this re- 
lation) for who can forget it ? Are there 
in it no flames and furies ? — You are ig- 
norant then of what a scared imagination 
can figure ! what a guilty heart can feel ! 
How dismal it is ! The two great enemies 
of soul and body, sickness and sin, sink 
and confound his friends; silence and dark- 
ness are the dismal scene. Sickness excludes 
the light of heaven, and sin its blessed hope. 
Oh double darkness, more than Egyptian ! 
acutely to be felt ! 

The sad evening before the death of 
that noble youth, whose last hours sug- 
gested these thoughts, I was with him. — 

4 F No 



298 



THE LIFE OF OUR BLESSED LORD 



No one else was there but his physician, 
and an intimate acquaintance, whom he 
loved, and whom he had ruined. At my 
coming, he said, 

" You and the physician are come too 
late — I have neither life nor hope. You 
both aim at miracles. You would raise 
the dead." 

Heaven, I said, was merciful. 

" Or I could not," answered he, " have 
been thus guilty. What has it not done 
to bless and to save me ? I have been too 
strong for Omnipotence. I plucked down 
ruin." 

I said, The blessed Redeemer — 

"Hold, hold, (said he,) you wound me! 
This is the Rock on which I have split ! I 
denied his name." 

Refusing to hear any thing from me, or 
take any thing from the physician, he lay 
silent, as far as sudden darts of pain would 
permit, till the clock struck. Then he cried 
out with vehemence, " Oh time, time! it is 
fit thou shouldest strike thy murderer to the 
heart. — How art thou fled for ever ! — A 
month ! — Oh, for a single week ! I ask not 
for years, though an age were too little for 
the much I have to do." 

On my saying to him, we could not do 
too much; that heaven was a blessed place ; 

" So much the worse, (replied he,) 'tis 
lost ! 'tis lost ! Heaven is to me the seve- 
rest part of hell !" 

Soon after I proposed pn^er. To which 
he answered, 

" Pray, you that can : I never prayed, I 
cannot pray. My conscience is too much 
wounded. I have deserted my benevolent 
Maker, and my soul is enveloped in the 
deepest horrors." 

His friend, being much touched, even to 
tears, at this, (for who could forbear ? I 
could not,) he, with a most affectionate 
look, said, 



" Keep these tears for thyself ! I have 
undone thee. — Dost thou weep for me ? 
That's cruel. What can pain me more?" 

Here his friend, too much affected, would 
have left him. 

" No, (said he) stay. You still may hope ; 
— therefore hear me. How madly have I 
talked ! — how madly hast thou listened and 
believed ! But look upon my present state, 
as a full answer to thee and to myself. 
This body is all weakness and pain; but my 
soul, as if stung up by torment to greater 
strength and spirit, is full powerful to rea- 
son, full mighty to suffer; and that which 
thus triumphs within the jaws of mortality, 
is doubtless immortal. And as for a Deity, 
nothing less than an Almighty could inflict 
the pains I feel." 

I was about to congratulate this passive, 
involuntary confession, in his asserting the 
two prime articles of his Creed, extorted 
by the rack of nature ; when he thus very 
passionately added, 

" No, no! let me speak on. I have not 
long to speak. — My much injured friend! 
my soul, as my body, lies in ruins, in scat- 
tered fragments of broken thought. Re- 
morse for the past throws my thoughts on the 
future. Worse dread of the future strikes 
it back to the past. I turn, and turn, and 
find no ray. Didst thou feel half the 
mountain that is on me, thou w r ouldest 
struggle with the martyr for his stake, and 
bless Heaven for the flame ; that is not an 
everlasting flame, that is not an unquench- 
able fire." 

How were we struck ! yet soon after, 
still more. With what an eye of distrac- 
tion, what a face of despair, he cried out, 
"My principles have poisoned my friend; 
my extravagance has beggared my boy; 
my unkindness has murdered my wife ! — 
And is there another hell? O thou blas- 
phemed, yet most indulgent, Lord God 1 

hell 



AND SAVIOUR, 

hell itself is a refuge, if it hides me from 
thy frown." 

Soon after, his understanding failed ; 
his terrified imagination uttered horrors 
not to be repeated, or ever forgotten ; and 
before the sun (which I hope has seen few 
like him) arose, this gay, young, noble, inge- 
nuous, accomplished, and most wretched 
mortal expired. 

It must, indeed, be owned it sometimes 
happens, that men who have led very 
wicked lives, have gone out of the world as 
they have lived in it, defying conscience, 
and deriding a future judgment as an idle 
fiction; but these instances are very rare, 
and only prove that there are monsters in 
the moral as well as the natural world. 

It will perhaps be said, that the sons of 
vice and riot have pleasure in sensual in- 
dulgences. Allowed; but it is altogether of 
the lower kind, empty, fleeting, and tran- 
sient : like the crackling of thorns under a pot, 
so is the mirth of the wicked. It makes a 
a noise and a blaze for the present, but soon 
vanishes away into smoke and vapour. 



JESUS CHRIST. 299 

On the other hand, the pleasure of reli- 
gion is solid and lasting ; and will attend 
us through all, even the last stages of life. 
When we have passed the levity of youth, 
and have lost our relish for the gay enter- 
tainments of sense ; when old age steals 
upon us, and stoops us towards the grave ; 
this will cleave fast to us, and give us re- 
lief. It will be so far from terminating at 
death, that it then commences perfect, 
and continually improves, with new ad- 
ditions. 

Clad in this immortal robe, we need 
not fear the awful summons of the king 
of terrors, nor regret our retiring into the 
chambers of the dust. Our immortal part 
will wing its way to the arms of its om- 
nipotent Redeemer, and find rest in the 
heavenly mansions of the Almighty. And 
though our earthly part, this tabernacle 
of clay, returns to its original dust, and 
is dissolved, our joy, our consolation, our 
confidence, is, that we have a building of God, 
a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens. 



: 



THE LIVES 



OF 



THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS. 



SAINT PETER. 



CHAP. I. 

Account of the Life St. Peter, prior to 
his Call to the Apostleship of the blessed 
Jesus. 

Q1T Peter was born at Betbsaida, a city 
^ of Galilee, situate on the banks of 
the lake of Gennesaret, called also the sea 
of Galilee, from its being situated in that 
country ; and the lake of Tiberias, from 
that city being built on its banks. The 
particular time of this great apostle's birth 
cannot be known ; the evangelists, and 
other writers among the primitive Chris- 
tians, having been silent with regard to 
this matter. It is, however, presumed, 
that he was at least ten years older than 
his Master ; the circumstances of his be- 
ing married, and in a settled course of 
life, when he first became a follower of the 
great Messiah, and that authority and re- 
spect the gravity of his person procured 
him among the rest of the apostles, are 
thought sufficiently to declare this conjec- 
ture to be just. 



As he was a descendant of Abraham, 
he was circumcised according to the rites 
of the Mosaic law, and called by his pa- 
rents Simon or Simeon, a name common 
at that time among the Jews. But after 
his becoming a disciple of the blessed 
Jesus, the additional title of Cephas was 
conferred upon him by his Master, to de- 
note the firmness of his faith ; the word 
Cephas, in the Syriac, the common lan- 
guage of the Jews at that time, signifying 
a Stone or Rock; and thence he is called 
in Greek iietpos, and by us Peter, which 
implies the same thing. 

With regard to the parents of St. Peter, 
the evangelists have also been silent, ex- 
cept in telling us that his father's name 
was Jonas, who was highly honoured by 
our blessed Saviour, who chose two of his 
sons, Andrew and Peter, to be his apostles, 
and preachers of the glad tidings of salva- 
tion to the children of men. 

St. Peter, in his youth, was brought up 
to the trade of fishing, on the lake of Beth- 
said a, famous for different kinds of fish, 

which 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



301 



which excelled all others in the fineness of 
their taste. 

Here he followed the trade of fishing, 
but afterwards removed to Capernaum, 
where he settled ; for we find he had a 
house there when our Saviour began his 
public ministry, and there he paid tribute. 
Nicephorus tells us, that Helen, the mother 
of Constantine, erected a beautiful church 
over the ruins of St. Peter's house, in ho- 
nour of that apostle. 

Capernaum was as well situated as Beth- 
saida, for carrying on his trade, standing at 
the influx of the Jordan into the sea of 
Galilee, and where he might, with equal 
advantage, reap the fruits of an honest and 
industrious diligence. The business of 
Peter was both mean and toilsome ; it ex- 
posed him to all the injuries of the weather, 
the tempestuousness of the sea, and the 
darkness and horror of the night, and all 
to acquire a mean livelihood for himself 
and family. But meanness of worldly de- 
gree is no obstacle to the favour of God ; 
nay, if we review the state of Christianity, 
from its rise to the present period, we shall 
find that its friends and votaries consist 
rather of persons of humble and lowly sta- 
tions of life, than of the great, the dignified, 
and the opulent. 

And herein are manifested the wise and 
admirable methods used by Divine Provi- 
dence, in making choice of such mean 
and unlikely instruments, in planting and 
propagating the Christian religion in the 
world. Men who were destitute of the ad- 
vantages of education, and brought up to 
the meanest employments, were chosen to 
confound the wise, and overturn the learn- 
ing of the great. Such were the persons 
whom the Almighty sent to propagate the 
religion of his Son; to silence th^ wise, 
the scribe, and the disputer of this world, 
and to make foolish the wisdom of the 



earth. For though the Jews required a 
sign, and the Greeks sought after wisdom ; 
though the preaching of a crucified Saviour 
made no impression on the former, and 
wisdom became of little avail to the latter ; 
yet by this preaching God was pleased to 
save them that believed, and in the event 
made it appear, that the foolishness of God 
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is 
stronger than men. That so the honour of 
all might redound to himself, that no flesh 
should glory in his presence, but that he that 
glorieth should glory in the Lord. 

CHAP. II. 

The Manner by which Peter arrived to the 
Knowledge of the blessed Jesus, and of his 
Call to the Discipleship. 

ACRED history has not ascertained 
of what sect the apostle was. We 
know indeed that his brother Andrew 
was a follower of John the Baptist, that 
preacher of repentance ; and it is very un- 
likely that he, who was ready to carry his 
brother the early tidings of the Messiah, 
that the Sun of righteousness was already 
risen in those parts, should not be equally 
solicitous to bring him under the discipline 
and influence of John the Baptist, the day- 
star which appeared to usher in the glori- 
ous advent of the Son of God. Besides, 
Peter's great readiness and curiosity, at the 
first news of Christ's appearing, to come to 
him and converse with him, shews that his 
expectation had been awakened, and some 
glimmering rays of hope conveyed to him, 
by the preaching and ministry of John, 
who was the voice of one crying in the wilder- 
ness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his 
paths straight. 

He became acquainted with the imma- 
culate Lamb of God in the following 
4G manner: 




302 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



manner: The blessed Jesus having spent 
thirty years in the solitude of a private life, 
had lately been baptized by John in Jor- 
dan, and there owned, by the solemn attes- 
tation of Heaven, to be the Son of God ; 
whereupon he was immediately led into the 
wilderness, and there for forty days main- 
tained a powerful contest with the devil. 
But having conquered this great enemy of 
mankind, he returned to the place beyond 
Jordan, where John was baptizing his dis- 
ciples, and endeavouring to answer the 
Jews, who had sent a deputation to him to 
inquire concerning this new Messiah that 
appeared among them. To satisfy these 
curious inquirers of Israel, John faithfully 
related ever}^ thing he knew concerning 
him, gave him the greatest character, and 
soon after pointed him out to his disciples: 
upon which two of them presently followed 
trie great Redeemer of mankind, one of 
whom was Andrew, Simon's brother. 

Nor did he conceal the joyful discovery 
he had made ; for early in the morning he 
hastened to acquaint his brother Simon 
that he had found the Messiah. It is not 
enough to be happy alone ; grace is a 
communicative principle, that, like the 
circles in the water, delights to multiply 
itself, and to diffuse its influences all around, 
especially on those whom nature has placed 
nearest to us. I have, said he with rapture 
to his brother, found that eminent Per- 
son so long and signally foretold by the 
prophets, and whom all the devout and 
pious among the sons of Jacob so earnestly 
expected. 

Simon, who was one of those who waited 
for the redemption of Israel, ravished with 
the joyful news, and impatient of delay, 
presently followed his brother to the place: 
and, on his arrival, our blessed Saviour im- 
mediately gave him a proof of his divinity; 
saluting him at first sight by his name, 



and telling him both who he was, his name 
and kindred, and what title should soon be 
conferred upon him. 

But whether these two sons of Jonas 
constantly attended in person from that 
time on the great Redeemer of mankind, 
and became his disciples, the sacred his- 
tory is silent. It is, however, probable 
that they stayed with him some time, till 
they were instructed in the first rudiments 
of his doctrines; and then, by the leave of 
their great and benevolent Master, returned 
to their families, and to their callings : for 
it is reasonable to suppose, that the blessed 
Jesus was not at this time willing to awaken 
the jealousy of the rulers of Israel, and 
the suspicion of the Romans, by a numer- 
ous retinue; and therefore dismissed his 
disciples, and among the rest Andrew and 
Peter, who returned to their trade of fish- 
inn- on the lake, and where our blessed 
Redeemer afterwards found them. But 
some think that they continued with Christ 
from the time that they were first called to 
be his disciples, as hearers of all the doc- 
trines which he preached, and witnesses of 
all his miracles. 

The holy Jesus had now more than a 
year entered on his public ministry, going 
into every part of the country, to seek op- 
portunities of doing good to the children 
of men ; so that by the constancy of his 
preaching, and the reputation of his mi- 
racles, his fame was spread throughout all 
Juclea; and multitudes of people flocked to 
him from all parts, to hear his doctrines, and 
be spectators of his mighty works. 

But, to avoid this prodigious throng of 
people, our great Redeemer of, en retired 
to some solitary place, to indulge the pri- 
vacies of contemplation. In one of these 
retreats, on the banks of the sea of Galilee, 
the multitude found him out, and ran to 
him from the city. Our Saviour, therefore, 

to 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



303 



to avoid the crowd, stepped into a fishing- 
boat which lay near shore, and belonged 
to Simon Peter, who, together with his 
companions, were on shore drying their 
nets, after an unsuccessful night spent in 
toil and labour. The blessed Jesus, who 
might have commanded, was pleased to 
entreat Peter, who now returned to his 
boat, to thrust off a little from the land, 
that he might instruct the people, who 
were gathering in prodigious crowds on the 
borders of the lake. 

Peter gladly complied with the request 
of his Master, who delivered his heavenly 
doctrine to the people on the shore. As 
soon as he had ended his discourse, he re- 
solved to seal it by a miracle, that the 
people might be persuaded he was a teacher 
come from God. Accordingly, he ordered 
Simon to row farther from the shore, and 
cast his net into the sea. To which Simon 
answered, that i\\ey had laboured the pre- 
ceding night, and had taken nothing ; 
and if they could not then succeed, there 
were little hopes of it now, as the day was 
far less proper for fishing than the night. 
But as his Master was pleased to com- 
mand, he would obey ; and accordingly 
he let down his net, when, to the astonish- 
ment both of him and his companions, so 
great a multitude of fishes were enclosed, 
that they were obliged to call their part- 
ners to their assistance. Amazed at this 
miraculous draught of fishes, Simon Peter, 
in an ecstasy of admiration, blended 
with awe and humility, fell prostrate at 
his Master's feet, acknowledging him- 
self a vile and sinful person, and thinking 
himself unworthy of being admitted into 
the presence of a person so immediately 
sent from God. 13ut the compassionate 
Son of the Most High kindly removed his 
fears; telling him, that this miracle was = 
wrought to confirm his faith, and indi- 



cate to him that the Almighty had ap- 
pointed a more noble employment for him, 
that of savin"' the souls of the children of 
men. 

From this time Peter and his compa- 
nions became the inseparable and constant 
disciples of the great Messiah, living under 
the rules of his discipline and instructions. 
Soon after, our blessed Saviour returned to 
Capernaum with his disciples, where they 
found the mother-in-law of Peter danger- 
ously ill of a fever. But the compassionate 
Jesus, who never omitted any opportunity 
of doing good to the human race, rebuked 
the disease, and, taking her by the hand, 
restored her in a moment to her former 
health ; demonstrating at once his power and 
willingness to relieve the sons and daugh- 
ters of affliction. 

CHAP. III. 

Peculiar Transactions of tliis Apostle, from 
the Time of his being chosen, to his blessed 
Master's entering the City of Jerusalem. 

HE blessed Jesus having entered upon 
his important mission, thought pro- 
per to select some particular persons from 
among his followers, to be constant wit- 
nesses of his miracles and doctrine, and 
who, after his departure, might be intrusted 
with the care of building his church, and 
planting that religion in the world for which 
he himself left the mansions of heaven, and 
put on the vail of mortality. In order to 
this, he withdrew privately, in the evening, 
to a solitary mountain, where he spent the 
night in solemn addresses to his Almighty 
Father, for rendering the great work he 
was going to undertake prcoerous and 
successful. 

Early the next morning the disciples 
came to him, out of whom he made choice 

of 




304 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



of twelve to be his apostles, and the atten- 
dants on his person. 

These he afterwards invested with the 
power of working miracles, and sent them 
into different parts of Judea, in order to 
carry on with more rapidity the great 
work which he himself had so happily 
begun. 

All the evangelists, in their enumeration 
of these apostles, constantly place St. Peter 
first. But we must not, on that account, 
suppose that St. Peter was invested with 
any personal prerogative above his bre- 
thren : none of them ever intimated any 
such thing ; and St. Paul says expressly, 
that he himself was not inferior to the very 
chiefest apostle. 

Soon after this election, the blessed Je- 
sus, attended by Peter and the two sons 
of Zebedee, followed Jairus, a ruler of the 
synagogue, to his house, in order to restore 
his daughter, an only child, who lay at the 
point of death ; but before their arrival, a 
messenger reached them with the news 
that the damsel was dead, and therefore it 
was unnecessary for our Saviour to give 
himself any farther trouble. But our blessed 
Lord bid the ruler not despair ; for, if he 
believed, his daughter should yet be re- 
stored to her former health. And accord- 
ingly, on his arrival, he took the maid by 
the hand, and, with the power of a word, 
recalled her fleeting spirit, which had quit- 
ted its earthly tabernacle, and restored her 
again to life and health. 

W e have no farther account of St. Peter 
in particular, till the night after our Savi- 
our's miraculously feeding the multitude 
in the wilderness. Jesus had ordered his 
disciples to take ship, and pass over to the 
other side, while he sent the multitude 
away. But a violent storm arising, they 
were in great danger of their lives ; when 
their great Master came unto them, walk- 



ing on the surface of the boisterous billows, 
with the same ease as if it had been dry 
ground. 

At his approach the disciples were greatly 
terrified, supposing they had seen a spirit. 
But their compassionate Master soon dis- 
pelled their fears, by telling them it was he 
himself, and therefore they had no reason 
to be terrified. 

Peter, who was always remarkable for 
bold resolutions, desired his Master to give 
him leave to come to him on the water ; 
and on obtaining permission, he left the 
ship, and walked on the sea, to meet his 
Saviour. But when he heard the deep 
roar around him, and saw the waves in- 
crease, he began to be afraid; and as his 
faith declined, his body sunk in the w r ater ; 
so that in the greatest agony he called for 
assistance to him that was able to save. 
Nor was his cry in vain ; the compassion- 
ate Redeemer of mankind stretched out 
his hand, and again placed him on the 
surface of the water, with this gentle re- 
proof, O thou of little faith, wherefore dicht 
thou doubt ? And no sooner was the blessed 
Jesus and his disciple entered into the ship, 
than the winds ceased, the waves subsided, 
and the ship was at the land whither they 
were going. 

A miracle of this kind could not fail of 
astonishing the disciples, and convincing 
them of the divinity of his mission ; accord- 
ingly they drew near and worshipped him, 
with this confession, Of a truth thou art the 
Son of God. 

The next day our blessed Saviour entered 
the synagogue of Capernaum ; and, from 
the miracle of the loaves, took occasion 
to discourse concerning himself, the true 
manna, and the bread which came down 
from heaven ; opening to them the more 
sublime and spiritual mysteries of the gos- 
pel ; on which great part of the audience, 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



305 



who expected he was going to erect a tem- 
poral kingdom, and re-establish the throne 
of David in Jerusalem, offended at his re- 
presenting his dominion as entirely spi- 
ritual, departed from him, and came no 
more to hear his discourses. Jesus, on 
beholding this defection, turned himself 
towards his disciples, and asked them 
whether they also would go away ? To 
which Peter replied, Lord, whither shall we 
go ? thou hast the zvords of eternal life. To 
whom should we apply for life and salva- 
tion ? thou art the way, the truth, and the 
life. 

The inhabitants of Judea, who beheld 
with astonishment the miracles wrought 
by the blessed Jesus, had formed many 
conjectures concerning him. Our great 
Redeemer was not ignorant of this ; but 
being willing to hear what account his 
disciples would give of the various opinions 
of the people, asked them what the world 
said concerning him ? To which they re- 
plied, that some took him for John the 
Baptist risen from the dead ; some thought 
him to be Elias, and others Jeremiah, or 
one of the old prophets. He asked them, 
what they themselves thought of him ? 
To which Peter, in the name of the rest, 
answered, Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God, anointed and set apart by 
the Most High, to be the great King, 
Priest, and Prophet, of Israel. 

This full and comprehensive declaration 
of Peter satisfied the inquiry of our blessed 
Saviour, who answered, Blessed art thou, 
Simon Bar- Jonah ; for flesh and blood hath 
not revealed it unto thee, But my Father 
which is in heaven. That is, this faith 
which thou hast now confessed is not 
human, or built upon the testimony of 
man, but upon that knowledge which I 
was sent from God to reveal unto the 
world ; therefore I say also unto thee, 



that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
build my church, and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it. As thy name signi- 
fies a rock, so shalt thou prove firm, solid, 
and immoveable, in building my church, 
which shall be so firmly established by 
thy care and diligence, upon that faith 
thou hast now professed, that all the as- 
saults of men and devils shall not be able 
to destroy it. 

The disciples had no idea that their 
Master was to suffer death for the sins of 
the world ; on the contrary, they con- 
sidered him as immortal, having imbibed 
the opinion of the Scribes and Pharisees, 
that Christ abidethfor ever: so that when the 
blessed Jesus told them of the sufferings he 
must undergo at Jerusalem, what affronts 
and indignities he must suffer, and be at 
last put to death, with all the acts of tor- 
ture and disgrace, by a sentence of the 
Jewish sanhedrim, Peter, who could not 
endure the thought of his Master's suffer- 
ing even the least punishment, much less 
those cruelties he had mentioned, and at 
last death itself, interrupted him very un- 
seasonably, and said, Be it far from thee, 
Lord; this shall not be unto thee. He con- 
sidered these sufferings as inconsistent with 
the character of the great Messiah, whom 
he expected would restore the splendour of 
the throne of David his father, and reduce 
all the kingdoms of the earth to his 0De- 
dience. But our blessed Saviour, who 
came down from heaven to give his life a 
ransom for the sins of the world, and who 
valued the redemption of mankind infi- 
nitely more than his own ease and safety, 
highly resented this speech of St. Peter, 
and accordingly returned this sharp re- 
proof : Get thee behind me, Satan ; thou art 
an offence to me. Thy pernicious counsel, 
in seeking to oppose the design for which 
I purposely left the courts of heaven, is 

4 H offensive ; 



306 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



offensive ; and thou savourest not the things 
that he of God, but those that be of men. 

Some time after, the great Redeemer of 
the souls of men, being to receive a speci- 
men of his future glorification, took with 
him three of his most intimate apostles, 
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and 
went up into a very high mountain ; and 
while they were employed in earnest ad- 
dresses to the Almighty, he was trans- 
figured before them, darting such lustre 
from his face, as exceeded the meridian 
rays of the sun in brightness ; and such 
beams of light issued from his garments, 
as exceeded the light of the clearest day ; 
an evident and sensible representation of 
that state, when the just shall walk in white 
robes, and shine as the sun in the kingdom of 
their Father, During this heavenly scene, 
the great prophets Moses and Elias ap- 
peared in all the brightness and majesty of 
a glorified state, familiarly conversing with 
him, and discoursing of the death and suf- 
ferings he was shortly to undergo, and his 
ascension to the heavenly regions of bliss 
and happiness. 

In the mean time, Peter and the two 
apostles were fallen asleep ; but on their 
awaking were strangely surprised to see 
the Lord surrounded with so much glory, 
and those two great persons conversing 
with him. They, however, remained si- 
lent till those visitants from the courts of 
heaven were going to depart, when Peter, 
in rapture and ecstasy of mind, addressed 
himself to his Master, declaring their infi- 
nite pleasure and delight in being favoured 
with this glorious spectacle; and desired 
his leave to erect three tabernacles, one for 
him, one for Moses, and one for Elias. But 
while he was speaking a bright cloud over- 
shadowed these two great prophets, and a 
voice came from it, uttering these remark- 
able words; This is my beloved Son, in whom 



I am well pleased : hear ye him. On which 
the apostles were seized with the utmost 
consternation, and fell upon their faces to 
the ground; but Jesus touching them, bid 
them dismiss their fears, and look up with 
confidence : they immediately obeyed, but 
saw their Master only. 

After this heavenly scene, our blessed 
Lord travelled through Galilee ; and at his 
return to Capernaum, the tax-gatherers 
came to Peter, and asked him whether his 
Master was not obliged to pay tribute ? 
When our blessed Saviour was informed of 
this demand, rather than give offence, he 
wrought a miracle to pay it. Our great 
Redeemer was now going, for the last 
time, to Jerusalem ; and he ordered two 
of his disciples, probably Peter and John, 
to fetch him an ass, that he might enter 
into the city on it, as had been foretold. 
The disciples obeyed their Master, and 
brought the ass to Jesus, who being mounted 
thereon, entered the city amidst the hosan- 
nas of a numerous multitude, with palm- 
branches in their hands, proclaiming at 
once both the majesty of a Prince, and the 
triumph of a Saviour. 



CHAP. IV. 



10fl 



Life of St. Peter, from the Time of the Cele- 
bration of the last Passover to the Cruci- 
fixion of the great Redeemer. 

nflHE blessed Jesus proceeded from Je- 
rusalem to Bethany, from whence he 
sent two of his disciples, Peter and John, 
to make preparations for his celebrating 
the passover. 

Every thing being ready, our blessed 
Saviour and his apostles entered the house, 
and sat down to table. But their great 
Master, who often taught them by ex- 
ample as well as precept, arose from his 

seat. 



THE LIVES OP THE APOSTLES. 



307 



seat, laid aside his upper garment, took 
the towel, and pouring water into a bason, 
began to wash his disciples' feet, to teach 
them humility and charity by his own 
example. But on his coming to Peter, he 
would by no means admit his Master to 
perform so mean and condescending an 
office. What ! the Son of God stoop 
to wash the feet of a sinful mortal ! A 
thought which shocked the apostle, who 
strenuously declared, Thou shalt never wash 
my feet. But the blessed Jesus told him, 
that if he washed him not, he could have 
no part with him ; intimating, that this ac- 
tion was mystical, and signified the remis- 
sion of sins, and the purifying virtue of the 
Spirit of the Most High, to be poured 
upon all true Christians. This answer suf- 
ficiently removed the scruples of Peter, 
who cried out, Lord, not my feet only, but 
also my hands and my head. Wash me in 
every part, rather than let me lose my por- 
tion in thee. 

The blessed Jesus, having set this pat- 
tern of humility, began to reflect on his 
approaching sufferings, and on the person 
who should betray him into the hands of 
wicked and cruel men, telling them, that 
not a stranger or an enemy, but one of his 
friends, one of his apostles, and even one 
of them who then sat at the table with him, 
would betray him. 

This declaration exceedingly affected 
them all in general, and Peter in particular, 
who made signs to St. John, to ask him 
particularly who it was ? Jesus complied 
with this request, and gave them to under- 
stand that it was Judas Iscariot. 

Our great Redeemer now began the in- 
stitution of his Supper, that great and so- 
lemn institution, which he resolved to leave 
behind him, to be constantly celebrated 
in his church, as a standing monument of 
his love in dying for mankind ; telling 



them at the same time, that he himself was 
now going to leave them, and that whither 
he went, they could not come. Peter, not 
well understanding what he meant, asked 
him whither he was going ? To which our 
great Redeemer replied, that he was going 
to that place whither he could not now, 
but should hereafter, follow him ; inti- 
mating the martyrdom he was to suffer 
for his Master's religion. Peter answered, 
that he was ready now to follow him, 
even if it required him to lay down his 
life. This confident presumption was not 
at all agreeable to the blessed Jesus, who 
told him he had promised great things, but 
would be so far from performing them, 
that before the cock crew, he would deny 
him thrice. 

Supper being now ended, they sung 
an hymn, and departed to the mount of 
Olives; where Jesus again put them in 
mind how greatly the things he was going 
to suffer would offend them. To which 
Peter replied, that though all men should 
be offended because of him, yet he himself 
would never be offended. How far will an 
indiscreet zeal and affection transport even 
a well-meaning man into vanity and pre- 
sumption ! Peter questions the fidelity of 
others, but never doubts his own ; though 
his Lord had just before reproved him 
for his self-sufficiency. This confidence 
of Peter inspired the rest of the apostles 
with courage; so that they declared their 
constant and unshaken adherence to their 
Master. 

They now repaired to the garden of 
Gethsemane ; and leaving the rest of the 
apostles near the entrance, our blessed 
Saviour, taking with him Peter, James, 
and John, retired into the most solitary 
part of the garden, to enter on the prepa- 
ratory scene of the great tragedy that was 
now approaching. 



THE APOSTLES. 



308 THE LIVES OF 

Here the blessed Jesus laboured under 
the bitterest agony that ever human nature 
suffered, during which he prayed with the 
utmost fervency to his Father, offering up 
prayers and supplications with strong crying 
and tears; and his sweat was as it were great 
drops of blood falling to the ground. 

While our blessed Redeemer was thus 
interceding with the Almighty, his three 
disciples were fallen asleep, though he 
had made three several visits to them ; and 
calling to Peter, asked him if he could 
not watch one hour with him? Advising 
them all to watch and pray, that they 
might not enter into temptation ; adding, 
the spirit indeed is willing, but the Jlesh is 
weak. 

What incomparable sweetness, what ge- 
nerous candour, did the Redeemer of man- 
kind display on this occasion ! He passed 
the most charitable censure upon an ac- 
tion, which malice and ill-nature would 
have painted in colours as black as the 
shades of darkness. 

The disciples were drowned in a pro- 
found security, and were buried in a deep 
sleep, and though repeatedly awaked and 
informed of the approaching tragedy, they 
little regarded the admonitions, as if no- 
thing but ease and softness engaged their 
thoughts ; an action which seemed to im- 
ply the most amazing ingratitude, and 
the highest disregard for their Lord and 
Master. 

But he, who was compassion itself, 
would not impute it to their want of affec- 
tion, or disregard for his safety ; he con- 
sidered it merely as the effect of their in- 
firmities, and made an excuse for them 
when they could make none for themselves: 
teaching us the useful lesson of putting the 
most favourable construction on the actions 
of others; and to imitate the bee, and not 
the adder, by sucking honey, instead of 



poison, from the various transactions of 
human life. 

While he was discoursing with them, a 
band of soldiers, from the chief priests and 
elders, preceded by the traitor Judas, to 
conduct and direct them, rushed into the 
garden, and seized the great High Priest of 
our profession. Peter, whose ungovernable 
zeal would admit of no restraint, drew his 
sword, and, without the least order from 
his Master, struck at one of the persons 
who seemed to be remarkably busy in bind- 
ing Jesus, and cut off his right ear. This 
wild and unwarrantable zeal was very of- 
fensive to his Master, who rebuked Peter, 
and entreated the patience of the soldiers 
while he miraculously healed the wound. 

But now the fidelity of the apostles, 
which they had urged with so much con- 
fidence, was put to the trial. They saw 
their Master in the hands of a rude and in- 
considerate band of men ; and therefore 
should have exerted their power to release 
him, or at least to have been the com- 
panions of his sufferings, and endeavoured, 
by every kind endearing action, to have 
lessened his grief. But, alas ! instead of 
assisting or comforting their great Master, 
they forsook him and fled. 

The soldiers, after binding Jesus, led 
him away, and delivered him to the chief 
priests and elders, who carried him from 
one tribunal to another, first to Annas, and 
then to Caiaphas, where the Jewish sanhe- 
drim were assembled, in order to try and 
condemn him. 

In the mean time, Peter, who had fol- 
lowed the other disciples in their flight, re- 
covered his spirits, and, being encouraged 
by his companion St. John, returned to 
seek his Master. Seeing him as he was led 
to the high priest's hall, he followed at a 
distance, to know the event; but on his 
coming to the door, was refused admit- 
tance, 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



309 



tance, till one of the disciples, who was 
acquainted there, came out. and prevailed 
upon the servant who kept the door to let 
him in. Peter being admitted, repaired 
to the fire burning in the middle of the 
hall, round which the officers and servants 
were standing ; where, being observed by 
the maid-servant who let him in, she charg- 
ed him with being one of Christ's disci- 
ples ; but Peter publicly denied the charge, 
declaring that he did not know him, and 
presently withdrew into the porch, where 
being secluded from the people, the re- 
flection of his mind awakened his consci- 
ence into a quick sense of his duty, and 
the promise he had a few hours before 
made to his Master. But, alas ! human 
nature, when left to itself, is remarkably 
frail and inconstant. This, Peter suffi- 
ciently experienced ; for while he conti- 
nued in the porch, another maid met him, 
and charged him with being one of the 
followers of Jesus of Nazareth; which Peter 
firmly denied, and, the better to gain be- 
lief, ratified it with an oath. 

About an hour after this, the servant of 
the high-priest, he whose ear Peter had 
cut off, charged him with being a disciple 
of Christ, and that he himself had seen 
him in the garden with him ; adding, that 
his very speech sufficiently proved that he 
was a Galilean. Peter, however, still de- 
nied the fact; and added to his sin, by ra- 
tifying it not only with an oath, but a so- 
lemn curse and execration, that he was not 
the person, and that he knew not the man. 
But no sooner had he uttered this denial 
(which was the third time) than the cock 
crew ; at which his Master turned about, 
and earnestly looked upon him in a man- 
ner that pierced him to the heart, and 
brought to his remembrance what his Sa- 
viour had more than once foretold, namely, 
that he would basely and shamefully denv 



him. Peter was now no longer able to 
contain his sorrow ; he flew from the pa- 
lace of the high-priest, and wept bitterly, 
passionately bewailing his folly, and the 
aggravations of his sin. 

The fall of St. Peter should convince us 
of the frailty of men, and effectually sub- 
due those vain confidences which are apt 
to rise in our hearts, from our own sup- 
posed strength and firmness. For, as this 
great disciple fell in so scandalous a man- 
ner, who shall hereafter dare to depend 
upon the highest degree of knowledge, 
when one so wise, so perfectly satisfied of 
the truth of the Christian doctrine, was, 
after the fullest convictions of his own con- 
science, so weak and frail as to deny and 
abjure his Lord, who instructed and bought 
him even at the price of his own blood ? 
Who shall presume upon his best resolu- 
tions, when he, who declared so firm a pur- 
pose of adhering to Jesus, did within a 
few hours peremptorily and solemnly dis- 
own that very person, for whose sake he 
was lately ready and disposed to lay down 
his life ? 

We ought, therefore, on all occasions, 
to pray for, and rely on, the divine assist- 
ance, which can alone enable us to stand in 
a day of trial. There is, indeed, no rea- 
son to doubt that St. Peter at that time 
spoke the very sense of his soul ; that he 
had an honest and sincere heart, was 
stedfastly determined, and, as he thought, 
able to perform, what, with so much piety 
and affection, he intended and professed. 
But his blame was, that he did not consi- 
der the infirmities of human nature, pro- 
mising, in the warmth of his zeal, more 
than he was able to perform. He relied 
on his own integrity, thinking good reso- 
lutions a sufficient defence against the 
most violent temptations. But when the 
assault was made, and danger, with her ter- 

4 I rifying 



310 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



rifying aspect, appeared, the event suffici- 
ently proved, that how willing soever the 
spirit might be, yet the flesh was exceed- 
ingly frail and weak. 

We have in St. Peter a warning for our 
instruction. The opinion of his own 
strength proved his ruin. So dangerous 
and fatal is it to lean to our own under- 
standings ; to be wise, good, and safe, in 
our own conceit; when all our sufficienc} r , 
all our safety, is of God. 

We should also, from his conduct, re- 
member the wisdom and goodness of the 
Almighty, in causing the faults and infir- 
mities of his saints to be recorded in the 
holy scriptures, and the use we ought to 
make of their failings and temptations. 
Their eminent perseverance in the cause of 
Christ, and their as eminent repentance 
where they did amiss, are written as a sea- 
sonable warning, and exhibit an instance 
of humiliation to all future ages ; by let- 
ting us to see, that men are but men, sub- 
ject to blemishes and imperfections ; and 
that the highest and purest state, without 
continued aid, is no security from danger. 
This should make us very tender how we 
judge and despise our brethren, whose 
faults, however severely we may censure 
them, might probably have been our own, 
had we been in their circumstances ; for 
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed 
lest he fall. 

We should not then promise ourselves 
such safety and freedom from temptations, 
in any circumstances of life, as to think 
we are incapable of committing the black- 
est crimes, should the Almighty withdraw 
his grace, and leave us to ourselves. 

And as their failings admonish, so they 
should also comfort us, by demonstrating 
that God does not suddenly cast off his ser- 
vants, when they have heinously offended 
him : that we ought not to despair, though 



our transgressions are great and many ; for 
if we will return with true contrition of* 
soul, we shall be kindly received, and 
freely pardoned. Those who fall with him 
should earnestly pray for that repentance 
which he had ; a repentance which zcas 
unto .salvation, and needed not to be repent- 
ed of. 

CHAP. V. 

An Account of what befell this Apostle, from 
the Resurrection of his blessed Master, to 
his Ascension into Heaven. 

T is certain, from various circumstances, 
that Peter, after the crucifixion of his 
Lord and Master, stayed at Jerusalem, or 
at least in the neighbourhood ; for when 
Mary Magdalene returned from the sepul- 
chre, to inform the disciples that the stone 
was rolled away from the door, and the 
body not to be found, Peter and John set 
out immediately towards the garden. John, 
who was the younger, arrived at the sepul- 
chre first, looked into it, but did not enter, 
either out of fear, or reverence to our Sa- 
viour. Peter came soon after, and reso- 
lutely went into the sepulchre, where he 
found the linen clothes lying together in 
one place, and the napkin that was about 
his head wrapped together in another, a 
sufficient indication that the body was not 
stolen away ; for had that been the case, so 
much care and order would not have been 
observed in disposing of the linen clothes. 

But Peter did not wait long in suspense, 
with regard to his great Lord and Master 
for the same day Jesus appeared to him : 
and as he was the first of the disciples who 
had made a signal confession of the divi- 
nity of the Messiah's mission, so it was 
reasonable he should first of the Apostles 
see him after his resurrection ; and at the 

same 



THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



311 



same time to convince him that the crime 
he had been guilty of, in denying him, was 
pardoned, and that he was come, like the 
good Samaritan, to pour oil into the wound- 
ed conscience. 

Soon after the apostles prepared to obey 
the command of their great Master, of re- 
tiring into Galilee ; and we find that Peter, 
Xathanael, the two sons of Zebedee, and 
two other disciples, returned to their old 
trade of fishing on the lake. 

One morning early, as they were la- 
bouring at their employment, having spent 
the whole night to no purpose, they saw 
on the shore a grave person, who called to 
them, and asked them if they had any 
meat? To which they answered, No. Cast 
then, replied he, the net on the right side 
of the ship, and ye shall find. They fol- 
lowed his directions, and caught a prodi- 
gious number of large fish. Astonished 
at such remarkable success, the disciples 
looked one upon another for some time, 
till St. John told Peter, that the person on 
the shore was, doubtless, their great Lord 
and Master, whom the winds, the sea, and 
the inhabitants of the watery region, were 
ready to obey. 

Peter no sooner heard the beloved dis- 
ciple declare his opinion concerning the 
stranger, than his zeal took fire ; and not- 
withstanding the coldness of the season, he 
girt on his fisher's coat, threw himself into 
the sea., and swam to shore : his impatience 
to be with his dear Lord and Master not 
suffering him to stay the few minutes ne- 
cessary to bring the ship to land. 

As soon as the disciples came on shore, 
they found a fire kindled, and fish laid 
upon it, either immediately created by the 
power of their divine Master, or which 
came ashore of its own accord, and offered 
itself to his hand. But notwithstanding 
there were fish already on the fire, he or- 



dered them to bring of those they had now 
caught, and dress them for their repast, he 
himself eating with them ; both to give 
them an instance of mutual love and friend- 
ship, and also to assure them of the truth 
of his human nature, since he was risen 
from the dead. 

When the repast was ended, our blessed 
Saviour addressed himself particularly to 
Peter, urging him to the utmost diligence 
in the care of souls ; .and because he 
knew that nothing but a sincere love to 
himself could support him under the trou- 
bles and dangers of so laborious and difii- 
cult an employment, he inquired of him 
whether he loved him more than the rest 
of the apostles ? mildly reproving him for 
his over confident resolution. Peter, whom 
painful experience had taught humility, 
modestly answered, that none knew so 
well as himself the integrity of his affec- 
tions. Thou knowest the hearts of all 
men, nothing is hid from thee, and there- 
fore thou knowest that I love thee. The 
question was three several times repeated 
by our blessed Saviour, and as oftentimes 
answered by the apostle ; it being but just, 
that he, who by a threefold denial had 
given so much reason to question his affec- 
tion, should now, by a threefold confes- 
sion, give more than common assurance of 
his sincere love to his Master : and to each 
of these confessions our great Redeemer 
added this signal trial of his affection, Feed 
my sheep; Instruct and teach them with 
the utmost care, and the utmost tenderness. 

The blessed Jesus having thus engaged 
Peter to a cheerful compliance with the 
dangers that might attend the discharge 
of his office, particularly intimated to him 
the sufferings that would attend him ; tell- 
ing him, that when he was young he girt 
himself, lived at his pleasure, and went 
wherever his fancy directed him ; but 

when 



312 THE LIVES OF 

when he should reach the term of old age, 
he would stretch forth his hands, and an- 
other should s;ird and bind him, and lead 
him whither he had no desire to go ; inti- 
mating, as the evangelist tells us, by what 
death he should glorify God. 

Peter was well pleased to drink the bitter 
cup, and make his confession as public as 
his denial, provided all would be sufficient 
to prove the sincerity of his love. And 
seeing John following, he asked his great 
Master what should be his lot ; and whe- 
ther he who had been the object of his 
Master's love in his life-time, should not 
have as honourable a death as he that had 
denied him ? To which Jesus replied, It 
doth not concern thee to know how I shall 
dispose of events with regard to him : he 
shall see the destruction of the Jewish na- 
tion, and then go down to the chambers of 
the dust in peace. 

Not long after, our blessed Saviour ap- 
peared to his disciples at Jerusalem, to take 
his last farewell of them who had attended 
him during his public ministry among the 
sons of men. He led them out as far as 
Bethany, a small village on the Mount of 
Olives, where he briefly told them that 
they were the persons he had chosen to be 
the witnesses both of his death and resur- 
ection ; a testimony which they should 
publish in every part of the world. In 
order to which, he would, after his ascen- 
sion into heaven, pour out his Spirit upon 
them in an extraordinary manner, that 
they might be the better enabled to strug- 
gle with that violent rage and fury, with 
which the doctrine of the gospel would be 
opposed by men and devils. Adding, that 
in the mean time they should return to 
Jerusalem, and there wait till those mira- 
culous powers were given them from on 
high. 

Having finished this discourse, he laid 



THE APOSTLES. 

his hands upon them, and gave them his 
solemn benediction ; during which he was 
taken from them, and received up into the 
regions of the heavenly Canaan. The 
apostles, who beheld their Master visibly 
ascend into heaven, were filled with a 
greater sense of his glory than they had 
ever been while he conversed with them 
familiarly on earth. And having perform- 
ed their solemn adoration to him, they re- 
turned to Jerusalem with great joy, there to 
wait for the accomplishment of their great 
Master's promise. How sudden a change 
was now wrought in the minds of the 
apostles ! They who were lately over- 
whelmed with sorrow, at the very mention 
of their Lord's departure from them, be- 
held him now with joy and triumph; they 
were fully satisfied of his glorious advance- 
ment to the right hand of Omnipotence, 
and of that peculiar care and providence 
which they were sure he would exercise 
over them, in pursuance of those great 
trusts he had committed to their care. 

CHAP. VI. 

Transactions of Peter, from the Ascension of 
his blessed Master, to the Dispersion of the 
Church of Jerusalem, 

THE apostles, though deprived of the 
personal presence of their dear Lord 
and Master, were indefatigable in fulfilling 
the commission they had received from 
him. The first object that engaged their 
attention, after their return to Jerusalem, 
was to fill up the vacancy in their number, 
lately made by the unhappy fall and apos- 
tasy of Judas. In order to this, they 
called together the church, and entered 
into an tipper room ; when Peter, as the most 
forward in the assembly, proposed to them 
the choice of a new apostle. 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



313 



He put them in mind that Judas, one of 
the disciples of their great and beloved 
Master, being influenced by his covetous 
and insatiable temper, had lately fallen 
from the honour of his place and ministry. 
That this was no more than what the pro- 
phet had long since foretold should come 
to pass, and that the care of the church 
which had been committed to him, should 
devolve upon another; and therefore it 
was highly necessary that some person who 
had been familiarly conversant with the 
blessed Jesus from first to last, and, con- 
sequent^, a competent witness both of 
his doctrine and miracles, his death, resur- 
rection, and ascension, should be substi- 
tuted in his room. 

This indeed was highly requisite ; for as 
no witness is so valid and satisfactory as 
the testimony of an eye-witness, so the 
apostles all along principally insisted on 
this, that they delivered nothing more to 
the world, concerning!; the great Redeemer 
of mankind, than what they themselves 
had seen and heard. As his rising from 
the dead was a principle likely to meet 
with the greatest opposition, and which 
would be the most difficult tenet of the 
gospel to be believed by the sons of men, 
they urged this great truth incessantly, 
declaring that they were eye-witnesses of 
his resurrection ; that they had seen and 
felt him, eaten and familiarly conversed 
with him, after his return from the cham- 
bers of the grave. It was, therefore, highly 
requisite that such an apostle should be 
chosen : and accordingly two candidates 
were proposed ; Joseph called Barsabas, 
and Matthias, both qualified for the great 
and important office of the apostleship. 
And having prayed that the divine Provi- 
dence would immediately guide and direct 
them in their choice, they cast lots, and 
the lot fell upon Matthias, who was ac- 



cordingly admitted into the number of the 
apostles. 

After filling up the vacancy in the apos- 
tolic number, they employed their time in 
prayer and meditation till the feast of Pen- 
tecost ; when the promise of their great 
Master in sending the Holy Ghost was ful- 
filled. The Christian assembly were met 
as usual, to perform the public services of 
their worship, when suddenly a sound, like 
that of a mighty wind, rushed in upon them; 
representing the powerful efficacy of that 
divine Spirit which was now to be communi- 
cated to them. After which there appeared 
small flames of fire, which, in the shape of 
cloven tongues, descended and sat upon the 
head of each of them, to denote that their 
enjoyment of this gift should be constant 
and perpetual; and not like the prophets 
of old, who were inspired only at some par- 
ticular times and seasons. 

Upon this they were all immediately 
filled with the Holy Ghost, which, in an 
instant, enabled them to speak fluently 
several languages they had never learned, 
and probably never heard. 

The report of so sudden and strange an 
action was soon spread through every part 
of Jerusalem, which at that time was full 
of Jewish proselytes, devout men out of 
every nation under heaven; Parthians, Medes, 
Elamites, the dwellers in Mesopotamia and 
Judea, Cappadocia, Pont us and Asia, Phry- 
gia and Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of 
Libya and Cyrene, from Rome, from Crete, 
and from Arabia. These no sooner heard 
of this miraculous effusion of the Holy 
Spirit, than they flocked in prodigious 
numbers to the Christian assembly, where 
they were amazed to hear these Galileans 
speaking to them in their own native lan- 
guages, so various and so very different 
from one another. And it could not fail 
of exceedingly increasing the wonder, to 

4 K reflect 



314 THE LIVES OF 

reflect on the meanness of the speakers, 
who were neither assisted by genius, po- 
lished by education, nor improved by use 
and custom. The disciples were destitute 
of all these assistances ; their parts were 
mean, their education trifling, and their 
experience in speaking before great as- 
semblies, nothing. Yet now these persons 
spoke boldly, and with the greatest pro- 
priety, in various languages. Nor were 
their discourses filled with idle stories, or 
the follies of a luxuriant fancy. No ; they 
expatiated on the great and admirable 
works of Omnipotence, and the mysteries 
of the gospel, which human apprehension 
could never discover. 

This surprising transaction had different 
effects on the minds of the people ; some 
attributing it to the effect of a miracle, and 
others to the power and strength of new 
wine. Upon which the apostles all stood 
up, and Peter, in the name of the rest, un- 
dertook to confute this injurious calumny. 

He told them that this scandalous slan- 
der proceeded from the spirit of malice 
and falsehood ; that their censure was as 
uncharitable as it was unjust; that it was 
early in the morning, and therefore not a 
time for drinking, especially on a day set 
apart for devotion ; that these extraordi- 
nary and miraculous effects were but the 
accomplishment of an ancient prophecy, 
which the Almighty had expressly declared 
should be fulfilled in the times of the Mes- 
siah; that Jesus of Nazareth hath evidently 
proved himself to be that great prophet, 
the Son of the Most High, by many un- 
questionable miracles, of which they them- 
selves had been eye-witnesses ; and though, 
by the permission of Omnipotence, who 
was pleased by this means to bring about 
the redemption of mankind, they had wick- 
edly crucified and slain him, yet God had 
raised him from the dead ; nor was it 



THE APOSTLES. 

consistent with the justice and goodness or 
the Almighty, especially those divine pre- 
dictions made concerning- him, that he 
should be confined in the chambers of the 
grave; David having particularly foretold, 
that his flesh should rest in hope ; that God 
would not leave his soul in hell, neither suffer 
his Holy One to see corruption ; but would 
make known to him the xm\j of life. That 
this prophecy could not relate to David 
himself, as he had, many ages since, been 
reduced to dust, and his flesh passed 
through the different stages of corruption, 
his tomb being yet visible among them, 
and from whence he was known never to 
return ; and therefore the prophecy must 
relate to Christ, having never been fulfilled 
in any but him, who both died and was 
risen again, whereof they were his wit- 
nesses. Nay, that he was not only risen 
from the dead, but ascended into the 
highest heaven, and, according to David's 
prediction, sat down on the right-hand of 
God, until he had made his enemies his foot- 
stool ; which could not be primarily meant 
of David, as he never ascended bodily into 
heaven ; that therefore the whole house of 
Israel ought to believe, that this very Jesus, 
whom they had crucified, was that person 
whom God had appointed to be the Mes- 
siah, the founder of the Christian church, 
and the Saviour of the world. 

This discourse, though the first that St. 
Peter ever made in public, deeply affected 
the people, and every word, like a dagger, 
pierced them to the heart, so that they 
cried out, Men and brethren, what shall we 
do ? To which Peter answered, The only 
way to obtain pardon for the many sins 
you have committed, and acquire the gif 
of the Holy Ghost, is to repent sincerely, 
and be baptized in the name of this cruci- 
fied Saviour. Upon these terms the pro- 
mises of the new covenant, ratified by the 

death 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



315 



death of the Son of God, will belong to 
you and your children, and to all that 
sincerely believe and embrace the gospel. 
He also used the most forcible and endear- 
ing expressions, to prevail on them to listen 
to the inviting calls of the Son of God, 
and by that means to save themselves 
from that unavoidable ruin and destruction, 
which would shortly fall on the heads of 
the wicked and headstrong generation of 
unbelieving Jews. 

The effect of this discourse was equally 
wonderful and surprising; for great num- 
bers of those, who before ridiculed the 
religion of Jesus, now acknowledged him 
for their Saviour, and flew to him for re- 
fuge from the impending storm ; and St. 
Luke tells us, that there were that day 
added to the church no less than three 
thousand souls, who were all baptized, 
and received into the flock of the great 
Shepherd of Israel, the bishop of our souls. 
A quick and plentiful harvest indeed ! 
This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvel- 
lous in our eyes. 

Soon after this wonderful effusion of the 
Holy Spirit, Peter and John, going up to 
the temple about three in the afternoon, 
near the conclusion of one of the solemn 
hours of prayer, saw a poor impotent 
cripple, above forty years of age, who 
had been lame from his birth, lying at the 
Beautiful gate of the temple, and asking 
alms of those who entered the sacred edi- 
fice. This miserable object moved their 
compassion ; and Peter, beholding him with 
attention, said, The riches of this world, the 
silver and gold so highly coveted by the 
sons of men, are not in my power to bestow; 
but the Lord hath given me the power of 
restoring life and health, and I am ready 
to assist thee. 

Then taking the man by the hand, he 
commanded him, in the name of Jesus of 



Nazareth, to rise up and walk. Immedi- 
ately the nerves and sinews were strength- 
ened, and the several parts of the diseased 
members performed their natural functions. 
Upon which the man accompanied them 
into the temple, walking, leaping, and prais- 
ing God. 

So strange and extraordinary a cure 
filled the minds of the people with ad- 
miration, and their curiosity drew them 
round the apostle, to view the man who 
had performed it. Peter seeing the mul- 
titude gathering round them, took the op- 
portunity of speaking to them in the 
following manner: " Men and brethren, 
this remarkable cure should not excite 
your admiration of us, as if we had per- 
formed it by our own power. It was 
wrought in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, 
our crucified Master, by the power of that 
very Christ, that holy and just person, 
whom you yourselves denied, and delivered 
to Pilate, nay, and preferred a murderer 
before him, when the governor was de- 
sirous of letting him go. But though ye 
have put him to death, yet we are wit- 
nesses that he is risen again from the 
dead, and that he is ascended into heaven, 
where he will remain till the great and 
tremendous day of general restitution. 
This, I know, was done by you and your 
rulers through ignorance, not being tho- 
roughly convinced of the greatness and 
divinity of his person ; an ignorance by 
which the great and righteous designs of 
Omnipotence were brought about, and the 
prophecies concerning the person and suf- 
ferings of the Messiah, delivered by Mo- 
ses, Samuel, and all the prophets since the 
world began, have been accomplished. — 
But now it is high time to repent and turn 
to God, that your crying sins may be for- 
given ; that when the Messiah shall appear, 
to execute judgment upon the Jewish na- 
tion, 



316 THE LIVES OF 

tion, it may be a time of comfort to you, 
as it will be of vengeance and destruction 
to others. You should remember, that 
you are the peculiar persons to whom the 
blessings and the promises primarily be- 
longed, and to whom the Almighty first 
sent his Son, that he might shower on you 
his blessings, by turning you away from your 
iniquities. 

While Peter was speaking to the people 
in one part of the temple, John was in all 
probability, doing the same in the other ; 
and the success plainly indicated how 
powerful the preaching of the apostles 
was; five thousand persons embracing the 
doctrines of the gospel, and acknowledg- 
ing the crucified Jesus for their Lord and 
Saviour. 

Such amazing success could not fail of ex- 
citing the attention and envy of the rulers 
of Israel. Accordingly, the priests and 
Sadducees repaired to the Roman magis- 
trate, and intimated to him, that, in all pro- 
bability, this concourse of people would 
prove the cause of a tumult and insurrec- 
tion. Upon this information, the captain 
of the temple seized on the apostles, and 
cast them into prison. 

The next day, they were carried before 
the Jewish Sanhedrim ; and being asked 
by what power and authority they had done 
this, Peter boldly answered, "Be it known 
unto you, and to all the descendants of 
Jacob, that this miracle was wrought wholly 
in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom 
ye yourselves have crucified and slain, and 
whom the Almighty hath raised again from 
the dead. This is the stone which you 
builders refused, and which is become the 
head of the corner. Nor is there any 
other way by which you, or any of the sons 
of men, can be saved, but by this crucified 
Saviour." 

The boldness of the apostle was ad- 



TIIE APOSTLES. 

mired by all, even by the court of the San- 
hedrim. And it should be remembered, 
that these very judges were the persons 
who had so lately condemned the blessed 
Jesus himself, and had no other way of co- 
louring their proceedings, than by a second 
act of cruelty; that the apostles did not 
charge them with the crime of crucifying 
the Son of God in secret, but in the open 
court of judicature, and in the hearing of 
all the people. 

The court, after beholding them with a 
kind of astonishment, remembered that 
they had seen them with Jesus of Naza- 
reth, and therefore ordered them to with- 
draw, while they debated among themselves 
what was proper to be done. It was im- 
possible to deny the miracle ; for it was 
performed before all the people, and the 
person on whom it was wrought was no 
stranger in Jerusalem. They therefore re- 
solved to charge them strictly not to preach 
any more in the name of Jesus. Accord- 
ingly, they were again called in, and ac- 
quainted with this resolution of the council. 
To which the apostles answered, That as 
they had received a commission from hea- 
ven to declare to all nations what they had 
seen and heard, it was certainly their duty 
to obey God rather than man. 

This was a fair appeal to the consciences 
of their very judges; but these rulers of 
Israel, instead of being satisfied with it, 
would, in all probability, have proceeded 
to greater violence, had not the people's 
veneration for the apostles checked their 
malice : so that all they dared to do, was to 
enforce their menaces, and dismiss them. 

When the apostles were returned to 
their brethren, they informed them of the 
treatment they had met with from the 
Jewish magistrates. Upon which, they all 
joined in prayer to the Almighty, for an 
extraordinary supply of courage, and as- 
sistance 



THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



317 



sistance to enable them to execute their 
commission in these perilous times, and 
plant the religion of their crucified Sa- 
viour. Nor were their prayers offered in 
vain ; for before they had concluded their 
fervent addresses to the throne of grace, 
the house was again shaken as on the day 
of Pentecost ; and they were instantly re- 
plenished with fresh measures of the Holy 
Ghost ; and notwithstanding all the threat- 
enings of the Jewish rulers, found them- 
selves enabled to preach the gospel of their 
great and beloved Master with more bold- 
ness than ever. 

The labours of the apostles were crown- 
ed with abundant success, and it seems 
that such was the aversion of the invete- 
rate Jews to those who became converts to 
the faith of Christ, that they were deprived 
of business in their respective callings ; for 
we find that the professors of the religion 
of the holy Jesus sold their effects, and 
brought the money to the apostles, that 
they might deposit it in one common trea- 
sury, and from thence supply the several 
exigencies of the church. 

But hypocrisy was not unknown among 
the professors of religion, even in those 
primitive times. Ananias and his wife 
Sapphira, having embraced the doctrines 
of the gospel, pretended to follow the free 
and generous spirit of others, by conse- 
crating and devotino- their estate to the 
honour of God, and the necessities of the 
church. Accordingly they sold their pos- 
sessions, and brought part of the money, 
and laid it at the apostles' feet ; hoping 
to deceive them, though guided by the 
Spirit of Omnipotence. But Peter, at his 
first coming in, asked Ananias how he 
could suffer Satan to fill his heart with 
such enormous wickedness, as to think to 
deceive the Holy Ghost. That before it 
was sold, it was wholly in his own power, 



and afterwards the mone}'' entirely at his 
own disposal ; so that this action was ca- 
pable of no other interpretation, than that 
he had not only abused and injured man, 
but mocked the Almighty himself, who he 
must know was privy to his most secret 
thoughts. 

The apostle had no sooner finished, than 
Ananias, to the great surprise of all that 
were present, fell down dead, by a stroke 
from heaven. 

Not long after, his wife came in, whom 
Peter reproved in the same manner he had 
clone her husband, adding, that she should 
immediately end her life in the same awful 
manner: upon which she was smitten by 
the hand of Omnipotence, and fell down 
dead ; sharing with her husband in the 
punishment, as she had before in the hei- 
nous crime. This remarkable instance of 
severity filled all the converts with fear and 
trembling, and prevented, in a great mea- 
sure, that hypocrisy and dissimulation, by 
which others might flatter themselves to 
deceive the church. 

But such instances of severity were very 
extraordinary ; the power of the apostles 
was generally exerted in works of mercy 
and beneficence towards the sons and 
daughters of affliction. They cured all 
kinds of diseases, and cast out devils ; so 
that they brought the sick into the streets, 
and laid them upon beds and couches, that 
the shadow at least of Peter, as he passed 
by, might cover some of them ; well know- 
ing a single touch or word, from either of 
the apostles, was sufficient to remove the 
most inveterate diseases. 

Such astonishing miracles could not fail 
of contributing to the propagation of the 
gospel, and to convince the world that the 
apostles were far more considerable per- 
sons than they at first took them to be ; 
and that poverty and meanness may be 

4 L blended 



318 THE LIVES OF 

blended with true worth and genuine 
greatness. How small and insignificant 
is the power and dignity of all earthly 
monarchs, when compared to the glory of 
this apostle ! and how contemptible were 
the triumphs of a Pompey and a Cesar, 
when placed in competition with the 
greatness and majesty of St. Peter, who 
converted the world from idolatry and the 
worship of devils, and withdrew the vail 
of ignorance from the understandings of 
the human race ; not by the power of ar- 
mies, nor the insinuating artifices of pomp 
and grandeur, but by faith in the power 
of his Saviour. 

But the stupendous works of the apos- 
tles, and the growing numbers of the 
church, alarmed the rulers of Israel ; who 
seized the apostles, and cast them into pri- 
son. Their power, however, was limited, 
like the drop of a bucket to the ocean, 
when opposed to the almighty arm of the 
great Jehovah. The prison doors, though 
fastened with the utmost caution, opened 
of themselves at the approach of a messen- 
ger from the courts of heaven : who com- 
manded the apostles to leave the dungeon, 
repair to the temple, and preach the glad 
tidings of the gospel to the people. 

The officers, returning in the morning, 
found the prison doors shut and guarded, 
but the prisoners were gone. This re- 
markable circumstance greatly alarmed 
them, and they repaired to the council to 
acquaint them with what had happened. 
The rulers were astonished at the news; 
but hearing that the apostles were preach- 
ing in the temple, they sent an officer to 
bring them, without the least violence to 
their persons, before the Sanhedrim. Their 
order was soon obeyed, and the disciples of 
Jesus placed before the same court that 
had so lately condemned their Master. 

The apostles being thus brought before 



THE APOSTLES. 

the Sanhedrim, the high-priest asked them 
how they dared to propagate a doctrine 
they had so strictly charged them not to 
preach ? To which Peter, in the name of 
the rest, replied, We certainly ought to obey 
God rather than man. And though you have 
so barbarously and contumeliously treated the 
Saviour of the world, yet God hath raisea 
him up to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give 
both repentance and remission of sins. And 
of these things we are witnesses, and so is also 
the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to alt 
them that obey him. 

This answer, delivered with remarkable 
boldness, exasperated the council, and 
they began to consult how they might de- 
stroy them. But Gamaliel, a grave and 
learned counsellor, after commanding the 
apostles to withdraw, desired them to pro- 
ceed with caution in an affair of this na- 
ture : reminding them, that several persons 
had already raised parties, and drawn 
great numbers of partisans after them ; but 
that every one of them had miscarried, and 
all their designs were rendered abortive, 
without the interposition of that court : 
that they would therefore do well to let 
the apostles alone ; for if their doctrines 
and designs were of human invention, they 
would come to nothing ; but if they were 
of God, all their power and policy would 
be of no effect, and experience would too 
soon convince them, that they had them- 
selves opposed the counsels of the Most 
High 

This prudent and rational advice had 
the desired success ; the council were sa- 
tisfied ; and after commanding the apos- 
tles to be scourged, they strictly charged 
them to preach no more in the name of 
Jesus, and set them at liberty. 

But this charge had little effect on the 
disciples of the blessed Jesus ; they return- 
ed home in triumph, rejoicing that they 

were 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



319 



were thought worthy to suffer in so righ- 
teous a cause, and to undergo shame and 
reproach for so kind and so powerful a 
Master. Nor could all the opposition of 
men, blended with the malice of the 
powers of darkness, discourage them from 
performing their duty to the Almighty, or 
lessen their zeal for preaching, both in 
public and private, the doctrines of the 
gospel. 

CHAP. VII. 

Concluding Scenes of St. Peters Life. 

TB1HE Christian doctrine had been pro- 
-■- pagated hitherto without much vio- 
lence or opposition, in Jerusalem, but now 
a storm commenced with the death of 
the proto-martyr Stephen, nor did it end 
but with the dispersion of the disciples ; 
by which means the glad tidings of the 
gospel, which had till now been confined 
to Judea, were preached to the Gentile 
world, and an ancient prophecy fulfilled, 
which says, Out of Sio?i shall go forth the 
law, and the word of the Lord from Jeru- 
salem. Thus does the Almighty bring 
good out of evil, and cause the malicious 
intentions of the wicked to redound to his 
praise. 

Among the dispersed followers of the 
blessed J esus, Philip the deacon retired to 
Samaria, where he preached the gospel, 
and confirmed his doctrine by many mira- 
culous cures, and casting out devils. In 
this city was one Simon, who, by magic 
art and diabolical sorceries, was beheld 
with admiration by the people ; and some 
considered him as the great power of God, 
a name he blasphemously gave himself, 
pretending to be the first and chief Deity, 
or what every nation considered as the 
supreme God. 



This wicked mortal, hearing the sermons 
of Philip, and beholding the miracles 
wrought by him, became a professed con- 
vert to the religion of Jesus, and was bap- 
tized with the others who had embraced 
the principles of the Christian doctrine. 

The apostles who continued at Jerusa- 
lem were soon informed of this remarkable 
success of Philip's ministry in Samaria, and 
thought it necessary to send him assist- 
ance. Accordingly Peter and John were 
deputed to this infant church ; who having 
prayed, and laid their hands on the new 
converts, they received the Holy Ghost. 

Such miraculous gifts astonished the ma- 
gician ; and, desirous of obtaining the 
same privilege, he offered the disciples 
money to invest him with this power, that 
on whomsoever he laid his hand they might 
receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter, who 
perceived the insincerity of his heart, re- 
jected his offer with scorn and detestation. 
Thy money, said the great apostle, perisli 
with thee. And as thy heart is full of hy- 
pocrisy and deceit, thou canst have no 
share nor portion in so great a privilege. 
Thou wouldst do well to repent of so mon- 
strous a crime, and sincerely apply thyself 
to seek the Almight}^, that the thoughts 
of thy heart may be forgiven thee ; for I 
perceive that thy temper and disposition 
of mind is still vicious and corrupt, that 
thou art yet bound by the chains of ini- 
quity, and in a state displeasing to the 
Almighty, and dangerous to thyself. 

Simon was terrified at this speech of 
St. Peter ; his conscience flew in his face, 
and he prayed the apostles to make inter- 
cession for him to the throne of grace, 
that the Almighty might pardon his sin, 
and not inflict on him those heavy judg- 
ments. 

The apostle did not stay any longer in 
Samaria than was necessary to confirm the 

new 



320 THE LIVES OF 

new converts in the faith they had em- 
braced, and to preach the glad tidings of 
salvation in the adjacent villages : after 
which they returned to Jerusalem, to as- 
sist the rest of the disciples with their 
power. 

The storm, though violent, being at 
length blown over, the church enjoyed a 
time of calmness and security ; during 
which St. Peter went to visit the churches 
lately planted in those parts, by the disci- 
ples whom the persecution had dispersed. 
And at his arrival at Lydda, he miracu- 
lously healed iEneas, who had been af- 
flicted with the palsy, and confined to his 
bed eight years ; but on Peter s bidding 
him arise, in the name of Jesus, he was 
immediately restored to perfect health. 
Nor was the success of this miracle confin- 
ed to iEneas and his family ; the fame of 
it was blazed through all the neighbouring 
country, and many believed in the doc- 
trine of the Son of God. It was even 
known at Joppa, a sea-port town about 
six miles from Lydda ; and the brethren 
immediately sent for Peter, on the follow- 
ing melancholy occasion. Tabitha, whose 
Greek name w r as Dorcas, a woman vene- 
rable for her piety and extensive charity, 
was lately dead, to the great loss of man- 
kind, who loved genuine benevolence, es- 
pecially the poor and afflicted, who were 
supported by her charity. 

At Peter's arrival he found her dressed 
for funeral solemnity, and surrounded by 
mournful widows, who shewed the coats 
and garments wherewith she had clothed 
them, the monuments of her liberality. 
But Peter put them all out, and kneeling 
down, prayed with the utmost fervency ; 
then turning to the body, he commanded 
her to arise ; and taking her by the hand, 
presented her in perfect health to her 
friends and others, who were assembled to 



THE APOSTLES. 

pay their last duties to so good a woman. 
This miracle confirmed those who had 
newly embraced the doctrine of Jesus, and 
converted many more to the faith. After 
which he staid a considerable time at 
Joppa, lodging in the house of one Simon, 
a tanner. 

During his abode in this city, one day, 
when he was offering up his prayers to the 
Almighty, he found himself hungry, and 
called for meat ; but while it was dressing 
for him, he fell into a trance, wherein was 
presented to him a large sheet let down 
from heaven, containing all sorts of crea- 
tures, clean and unclean ; and at the same 
time a voice said to him, Arise, Peter, Mil 
and eat. But the apostle, as yet tena- 
cious of the rites and institutions of the 
Mosaic law, answered, that his conscience 
refused to comply, having never eaten any 
thing that was common or unclean. To 
which the voice replied, that it was un- 
just to consider that as common, which 
God had cleansed. This was done thrice ; 
after which the vessel was again drawn up 
into heaven, and the vision disappeared. 
By this symbolical representation, St. Pe- 
ter was given to understand, that the Al- 
might}^ was now going to send him on a 
new embassy, which the Spirit at the same 
time commanded him to undertake. While 
he was still wondering with himself what 
the event would prove, three messengers 
knocked at the gate, inquiring for him; 
and from them he received the following 
account : — That Cornelius, a Roman, cap- 
tain of a band of Italian soldiers at Ce- 
sarea, a person of great benevolence, and 
one who had been long a proselyte, had 5 
by an immediate command from God, sent 
for him. 

The next day, Peter, accompained with 
some of the brethren, went with the mes- 
sengers, and the day after arrived at Ce- 

sarea. 



THE LIVES OF 

sarea. Cornelius having information of 
his coming, had summoned his friends and 
kindred to Cesarea; and at the apostle's 
entering the house, fell at his feet, a me- 
thod of address frequent in the eastern 
countries. But Peter, who considered that 
honour as due only to the Almighty, lifted 
him up, and declared to the company the 
reason of his coming, saying, he had lately 
learned that there was no respect of persons 
with God. 

When the apostle had ended his speech, 
Cornelius, at his request, related the parti- 
cular reason for his sending for him. Four 
days ago, said this Roman officer, being 
conversant in the duties of fasting and 
praying, an angel from the court of hea- 
ven appeared to me, declaring that my 
prayers and alms were come up as a me- 
morial before the throne of the Most High; 
and at the same time ordered me to send 
to Joppa for one Simon Peter, who lodged 
in the house of a tanner near the sea-side, 
who would give me farther information in 
the mysteries of salvation. Accordingly, 
I made no hesitation to obey the heavenly 
messenger; I sent immediately for thee ; 
and now thou art come, and we are met 
together to hear what instructions thou 
hast to communicate. 

The relation of the Roman centurion 
astonished the apostle ; but he was soon 
convinced that God had broken down the 
partition wall, and no longer maintained a 
peculiar kindness for the sons of Jacob ; 
that it was not the nation, but the religion, 
not the external quality of the man, but 
the internal temper of the mind, that 
recommended the human race to the fa- 
vour of Omnipotence; that the devout and 
pious, the righteous and the good men, 
whatever part of the earth they may inha- 
bit, are the favourites of heaven ; that God 
as highly respects a just and virtuous man 



THE APOSTLES. 321 
t 

in the barren wastes of Scythia, as on the 
mountain of Sion; that the reconciling and 
making peace between God and man by 
Jesus Christ,, was the doctrine published 
by the prophets of old; and that God had 
now anointed and consecrated Jesus of 
Nazareth with divine powers, in the exer- 
cise whereof he went about doing; good to 
the children of men; that they had seen 
all he had done among the Jews, whom 
though they had slain and crucified, yet 
that God had raised him again the third 
day, and had openly shewed him to his 
apostles and followers, whom he had chosen 
to be his peculiar witnesses, and whom he 
had accordingly permitted to eat and drink 
with him after his resurrection, command- 
ing them to preach the gospel to all man- 
kind, and to testify, that he was the person 
whom God had ordained to be the great 
Judge of the world; and that all the pro- 
phets with one consent bore witness of him ; 
and that this Jesus is he, in whose name 
whosoever believes, would certainly receive 
remission of sins. 

While Peter was thus preaching to them, 
the Holy Ghost fell upon the greatest part 
of his hearers, enabling them to speak se- 
veral languages, and in them to magnify 
the great Creator of the sons of men. At 
this the Jews, who accompanied Peter, 
marvelled exceedingly, to see that the gifts 
of the Holy Ghost were poured upon the 
Gentiles ; and Peter seeing this, told the 
company that he knew no reason why these 
persons should not be baptized, as they 
had received the Holy Ghost as well as the 
Jews: and accordingly he gave orders that 
they should be baptized ; and to confirm 
them in the holy faith they had embraced, 
he staid with them some time. 

This action of St. Peter was considered 
in various lights by the brethren at Jerusa- 
lem, who being but lately converted to the 

4 M Christian 



322 THE LIVES OF 

Christian faith, were much attached to the 
religious ceremonies of the Mosaic institu- 
tion, and therefore most of them severely 
charged Peter, at his return, as being too 
familiar with the Gentiles. How powerful 
is the prejudice of education ! 

The Jews had for many ages conceived 
an inveterate opposition against the Gen- 
tiles, considering them as persons hated by 
the Almighty, who had chosen them for 
his peculiar people. The law of Moses, 
indeed, enjoined them to be kind to their 
own nation, in preference to all others; 
and the rites and institutions of their reli- 
gion, and the peculiar form of their go- 
vernment, rendered them very different 
from the inhabitants of other countries: a 
separation which, in after ages, they con- 
tracted into a much narrower compass. — ■ 
They were also tenaciously proud of their 
external privileges in being the descend- 
ants of their progenitor Abraham, and, 
therefore, looked upon the rest of the 
world as reprobates ; proudly refusing to 
hold any conversation with them, and even 
to shew them the common kindnesses of 
humanity. 

It is therefore no wonder that they 
were highly displeased with St. Peter ; nor 
would he have been able to have defended 
his conduct in a satisfactory manner, had 
he not been charged with a peculiar com- 
mission from the Almighty for extending 
the privileges of the gospel to the Gentile 
world. But he had no sooner informed 
them that the grace of the gospel was not 
confined to any particular nation or peo- 
ple, nor to ranks or degrees among men, 
than they immediately changed their dis- 
pleasure against him into thanks to the be- 
neficent Father of the human race, who 
had granted to the Gentiles also repentance 
unto life. 

Peter, after having finished his visita- 



THE APOSTLES 

tion to the newly planted churches, re- 
turned to Jerusalem, and was indefatigable 
in instructing the converts to the religion 
of Jesus, and preaching the glad tidings 
of salvation to the descendants of Jacob. 
But he did not long continue in this pleas- 
ing course : Herod Agrippa, in order to 
ingratiate himself into the favour of the 
Jews, put the apostle James to death ; and 
finding the action was highly acceptable 
to that stiff-necked people, he resolved to 
extend his cruelty to Peter, and accord- 
ingly cast him into prison. But the 
churches were incessant in their prayers to 
God for his safety: and what have mortals 
to fear, when guarded by the hand of 
Omnipotence? Flerod was persuaded he 
should soon accomplish his intention, and 
sacrifice Peter to the insatiable cruelty of 
the Jews. 

But the night before his intended exe- 
cution, a messenger from the court of hea- 
ven visited the gloomy horrors of the 
dungeon, where he found Peter asleep be- 
tween his keepers. The angel raised him 
up, took off his chains, and ordered him to 
gird on his garments and follow him. — 
Peter obeyed, and having passed through 
the first and second watch, they came to 
the iron gate leading to the city, which 
opened to them of its own accord. The 
angel also accompanied him through one 
of the streets, and then departed from him ; 
on which Peter came to himself, and per- 
ceived that it was no vision; but that his 
great and beloved Master had really sent a 
messenger from above, and released him 
from prison. He, therefore, repaired to 
the house of Mary, where many pious 
persons were assembled, and offering up 
their prayers to the throne of grace for his 
safety. On his knocking at the door, a 
maid who came to let him in, knowing his 
voice, ran back to tell them that Peter was 

at 



THE LIVES OF T 



;he apostles. 



323 



at the door; which they at first considered 
as the effect of fancy ; but the damsel con- 
tinuing to affirm that it was really true, 
they concluded it was his angel, or some 
messenger sent from the court of heaven. 
But, on opening the door, they were con- 
vinced of their mistake, finding that it was 
really Peter himself, who briefly told them 
how he was delivered ; and desiring them 
to inform his brethren of his being set at 
liberty, retired to another place. 

In the morning the officers came from 
Herod to the prison, with orders to bring 
Peter out to the people, who were ga- 
thered together to behold his execution. 
But when they came to the prison, the 
keepers informed them that the apostle 
had made his escape ; which so exaspe- 
rated Herod, that he commanded those 
who were entrusted with the care of the 
prisoner, to be put to death. 

Some time after this miraculous deliver- 
ance of St. Peter, a controversy arose be- 
tween the Jewish and Gentile converts, 
with regard to the observation of the Mo- 
saic law; a dispute which gave great un- 
easiness to many persons; the Jews zea- 
lously contending, that it was absolutely 
necessary to salvation to be circumcised, 
and observe the precepts of the ceremonial 
law, as well as those of the gospel. To 
compose this difference, it was thought ne- 
cessary to summon a general council of the 
apostles and brethren to meet at Jerusalem. 
This was accordingly done, and the case 
thoroughly debated. At last Peter stood 
up, and declared that God having chosen 
him, out of all the apostles, to be the first 
preacher of the gospel among the Gentiles, 
God, who was best able to judge of the 
hearts of men, had borne witness to them, 
that they were accepted of him, by giving 
them his Holy Spirit as well as he had done 
the Jews; and, consequently, that there 



was no difference between them. They 
could not, therefore, place the Jewish 
yoke, which neither they nor their fathers 
were able to bear, upon the necks of the 
disciples, without tempting and provoking 
the Almighty, who had given sufficient 
reasons to believe that the Gentiles, as well 
as the Jews, would be saved by the grace 
of the gospel. 

This declaration of St. Peter convinced 
the church, and it was unanimously de- 
creed, that no other burden than the strict 
observance of a few particular precepts, 
equally convenient to the Jew and Gen- 
tile, should be imposed on them. And the 
decision was drawn up in a synodical epis- 
tle, and sent to the several churches, for 
allaying the heats and controversies this 
dispute had occasioned. 

Soon after this council, Peter left Jeru- 
salem, and went down to Antioch ; where, 
using the liberty given him by the gospel, 
he freelv ate and conversed with the Gen- 
tile proselytes, considering them now as 
fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the 
household of God. This he had been taught 
by the vision of the sheet let down from 
heaven ; this had been lately decreed at 
Jerusalem ; this he had before practised 
with regard to Cornelius and his family, 
and justified the action to the satisfaction 
of his accusers ; and this he had freely and 
innocently done at Antioch, till some of 
the Jewish brethren coming thither, he, 
for fear of offending them, withdrew him- 
self from the Gentiles, as if it had been 
unlawful for him to hold conversation 
with uncircumcised persons; notwithstand- 
ing he knew, and was fully satisfied, that 
our blessed Saviour had broken down the 
wall of partition between the Jew and 
Gentile. 

By thus acting against the light of his 
own mind and judgment, he condemned 

what 



324 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



what he had approved, and destroyed the 
superstructure he had before erected ; at 
the same time he confirmed the Jewish 
zealots in their inveterate errors, filled the 
minds of the Gentiles with scruples, and 
their consciences with fears. Nor was this 
all ; the old prejudices between the Jew 
and Gentile were revived, and the whole 
number of Jewish converts, following the 
apostle's example, separated themselves 
from the company of Gentile Christians. 
Nay, even Barnabas himself was carried 
away by this torrent of unwarrantable 
practice. 

St. Paul was now at Antioch, and re- 
solutely opposed St. Peter to his face; he 
publicly reproved him as a person worthy 
to be blamed for his gross prevarication. 
He reasoned and severely expostulated 
with him; that he who was himself a Jew, 
and consequently under a more immediate 
obligation of observing the Mosaic law, 
should throw off the yoke himself, and at 
the same time endeavour to impose it on 
the Gentiles, who were never under the 
necessity of observing the ceremonies of 
the Israelites. A severe, though an impar- 
tial charge. But the remarkable eager- 
ness of St. Paul to place things on a proper 
foundation, though he succeeded for the 
present, made a great noise afterwards in 
the world, and gave occasion to the enemies 
of Christianity to represent the whole as a 
compact of forgery and deceit: of such per- 
nicious consequences are disputes among 
the principals of the church ; and so fatal 
are the effects of pusillanimity, and a fear 
of offending persons bigoted to insignifi- 
cant ceremonies. 



As we have now related all the transac- 
tions of this apostle, founded on scripture 
authority, we shall have recourse to ancient 
historians for the residue of his life. 



Some time before this contest at Antioch, 
St. Peter preached the gospel in various 
parts of the world, enlarging the kingdom 
of his great Master, and spreading the glad 
tidings of salvation among the inhabitants 
of various countries ; and, among the rest, 
those of Rome, then the mistress of the 
world. In that capital he is said to have 
continued several years, till the emperor 
Claudius, taking advantage of some sedi- 
tious tumults raised by the Jews, pub- 
lished an edict, whereby they were banished 
from Rome, and, among the rest, St. Peter, 
who returned to Jerusalem, and was pre- 
sent at the synod already mentioned. But 
how long he continued in the capital ot 
Judeais uncertain; for we have no account 
of transactions for many years. This, how- 
ever, is certain, that he was not idle in the 
service of his great Master; and Eusebius 
tells us, from Metaphrastus, that he visited 
several of the western parts, where he con- 
tinued several years, spreading the glad 
tidings of salvation in these remote places, 
and converting the several nations to the 
Christian faith. 

But however this be, whether St. Peter 
was, or was not, in these parts, it is certain 
that towards the latter end of Nero's reign 
he returned to Rome, where he found the 
minds of the people strangely bewildered, 
and hardened against the doctrines of the 
gospel, by the sorceries of Simon Magus, 
who, as has been already observed, was 
chastised by Peter for his wickedness at Sa- 
maria. This monster of impiety not only 
opposed the preaching of the apostles, but 
also did all in his power to render them 
and their doctrine odious to the emperor. 
— St. Peter, foreseeing that the calum- 
nies of Simon and his adherents would 
hasten his death, took the greater pains, 
and was still more assiduous to confirm 
those he had been any ways instrumental 

in 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



325 



in converting to the sublime truths they 
had received. And in order to this, he 
strongly opposed that great deceiver of 
mankind; for in the last years of his life, 
he seems to have wrote his two epistles to 
the dispersed Jews in Pontus, Galatia, 
Cappadocia, and Bythinia ; and in an ap- 
pointed encounter with Simon, discovered 
his magical impostures, and, through the 
power and assistance of the Almighty, 
brought him to an exemplary and miser- 
able death. 

The circumstances which attended this 
remarkable event are related as follow : 
The apostle meeting with Simon at Rome, 
and finding him still pretending to be some 
great person, even the promised Messiah, 
he could not help opposing zealously his 
presumptuous arrogance. But Simon, more 
incensed by the opposition, offered to give 
the people such an evident demonstration 
of his being what he pretended, that he 
would place the whole beyond contra- 
diction, by immediately ascending up to 
heaven. Upon this, by the help of some 
unperceived device, he raised himself from 
the earth, and seemed to be moving to- 
wards the regions of heaven. St. Peter 
and St. Paul, beholding the delusion, had 
recourse to prayer, and obtained their pe- 
titions of the Almighty, namely, that the 
impostor should be soon discovered, for the 
honour of the blessed Jesus. Accordingly 
he fell headlong to the ground ; by which 
he was so bruised, that he died in a very 
short time. 

Such was the end of this miserable, this 
unhappy, man ; but the news of it no 
sooner reached the emperor's ears, than 
he vowed revenue, both for the death of 
his favourite, and the endeavours used by 
the apostles to turn mankind from darkness 
unto light, and from the power of Satan 
unto God. Accordingly he issued orders 



for apprehending St Peter, together with 
his companion St. Paul. St. Ambrose tells 
us, that when the people perceived the 
danger to which St. Peter was now exposed, 
they prayed him to quit Rome, and repair 
for a while to some secure retreat, that 
his life might be preserved for the benefit 
of the church. Peter, with great reluc- 
tance, yielded to their entreaties, and made 
his escape by night ; but as he passed the 
gate, he was met by a person in the form 
of his great and beloved Master; and on 
his asking him whither he was going, an- 
swered, To Home, to be crucified a second time: 
which Peter taking for a reproof of his 
cowardice, returned again into the city, 
and was soon after apprehended, and cast, 
together with St. Paul, into the Mamer- 
tine prison. Here they were confined 
eight or nine months; but spent their time 
in the exercises of religion, especially in 
preaching to the prisoners, and those who 
resorted to them. And during this con- 
finement, it is generally thought, St. Peter 
wrote the second epistle to the dispersed 
Jews ; wherein he endeavours to confirm 
them in the belief and practice of Christi- 
anity, and to fortify them against those 
poisonous and pernicious principles and 
actions, which even then began to break in 
upon the Christian church. 

Nero at last returning from Achaia, en- 
tered Rome in triumph ; and, soon after 
his arrival, resolved that the apostles should 
fall as victims and sacrifices to his cruelties 
and revenue. While the fatal stroke was 
expected, the Christians in Rome were 
continually offering up their prayers to 
Heaven to protect those two holy persons. 
But the Almighty was now willing to put 
an end to their sorrows, and, after sealing 
the truth they had preached with their 
own blood, to receive them into the re- 
gions of eternal bliss and happiness, and 

4 N exchange 



326 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



exchange the crowns of martyrdom for 
crowns of glory. Accordingly, they were 
both condemned by the cruel emperor of 
Rome : and St. Peter having taken his 
farewell of the brethren, especially of St. 
Paul, was taken from the prison, and led 
to the top of the Vatican mount, near the 
Tiber, where he was sentenced to surrender 
up his life on the cross. 

At his coming to the place of execution, 
he besQ-ed the favour of the officers, that he 
might not be crucified in the common man- 
ner, but with his head downward ; affirming, 
that he was unworthy to suffer in the same 
posture in which his Lord had suffered be- 
fore him. This request was accordingly 
complied with ; and the great apostle St. 
Peter surrendered up his soul into the hands 
of his great and beneficent Master, who 
came down from heaven to ransom man- 
kind from destruction, and open for them 
the oates of the heavenly Jerusalem. 

His body being taken down from the 
cross, is said to have been embalmed by 
Marcellinus, the presbyter, after the man- 
ner of the Jews, and then buried in the 
Vatican, near the Appian Way, two miles 
from Rome. 

Here it remained till the time of pope 
Cornelius, who reconveyed it to Rome, 
where it rested in an obscure place, till 
the reign of Constantino, who, from the 
great reverence he entertained for the 
Christian religion, erected many churches 
at Rome, and rebuilt and greatly enlarged 
the Vatican in honour of St. Peter. He 
also considerably enriched the church with 
gifts and ornaments; and it has continued 
increasing in riches and splendour every 
age, until it is become one of the wonders 
of the world. 

If we consider St. Peter as a man, there 
seems to have been a natural eagerness 
predominant in his temper, which animated 



his soul to the most bold, and sometimes 
rash, undertakings. It was this, in a great 
measure, that prompted him to be so very 
forward to speak, and to return answers 
sometimes before he had well considered 
them. It was this that made him expose 
his person to the most imminent dangers, 
promise those great things in behalf of his 
Master, resolutely draw his sword in his 
quarrel against a whole band of soldiers, 
and wound a servant of the high-priest; 
nay, he had in all probability attempted 
greater things, had not the Lord restrained 
his impetuosity, and given a seasonable 
check to his disposition. 

If we consider him as a disciple of the 
blessed Jesus, we shall find him exemplary 
in the great duties of religion. His humi- 
lity and lowliness of mind were remarkable. 
With what a passionate earnestness, on the 
conviction of a miracle, did he beg our 
blessed Saviour to depart from him, think- 
ing it unworthy the Son of God to come 
near so vile a sinner ! 

When the great Redeemer of mankind, 
by that amazing condescension, stooped 
so low as to wash the feet of his disciples, 
Peter could not be persuaded to permit his 
performing it, thinking it highly improper 
that so great a person should submit to 
such a servile office towards a person so 
mean as himself ; nor could he be induced 
to admit of it, till his great Master threat- 
ened to deprive him of his favour. 

When Cornelius, the Roman centurion, 
heightened in his opinion of him by an 
immediate command from the Almighty 
concerning him, would have treated him 
with more than ordinary marks of esteem 
and veneration, he was so far from comply- 
ing- with it, that he declared he was no- 
thing more than a mortal like himself. 
His love and zeal for his Master were re- 
markable ; he thought he could never ex- 
press 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



327 



press either at too high a rate; venturing 
on the greatest perils, and exposing his life 
to the most imminent dangers. His for- 
wardness to own his great Master for the 
Messiah and Son of the Most High, was 
remarkably great ; and it was this that 
drew from his Lord that honourable en- 
comium, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona. 
But his courage and constancy in confess- 
ing Christ, even before his most inveterate 
enemies, was still greater, after he had re- 
covered himself from his fail. How plainly 
does he tell the Jews, that they were the 
murderers and crucifiers of the Lord of 
glory! Nay, with what an undaunted 
courage, with what an heroic greatness of 
soul, did he tell the very Sanhedrim who 
had sentenced and condemned him, that 
they were guilty of his death, and that they 
had no other way of escaping the vengeance 
of the Almighty, but by the merits of that 
very Jesus whom they had crucified and put 
to death ! 

Lastly, if we consider him as an apostle, 
as a pastor, or a shepherd of the souls of 
men, we shall find him faithful and diligent 
in his office, zealously endeavouring to in- 
struct the ignorant, reduce the erroneous, 
strengthen the weak, confirm the strong, 
reclaim the vicious, and turn the children 
of men into the paths of righteousness. 
He never omitted any opportunity of 
preaching to the people, and spreading the 
glad tidings of the gospel among the hu- 
man race ; and so powerful were his dis- 
courses, that he converted multitudes at 
one time. How many painful journeys 



and dangerous voj^ages did he undertake ! 
With what unconquerable patience did he 
endure the greatest trials, surmount every 
difficulty, and remove every opposition, 
that he might plant the gospel of his be- 
loved Master; never refusing even to lay 
down his life to promote it ! Nor was he 
only assiduous to perform these duties him- 
self, but he was also careful to animate 
others to do the like ; earnestly pressing 
and persuading the pastors and governors 
of the church to feed the flock of God, to 
labour freely for the good of the souls of 
men, and not undertake those office's to 
acquire advantage to themselves ; beseech- 
in o- them to treat the flock committed to 
their care with lenity and gentleness, and 
to be themselves shining examples of 
piety and religion, the surest method of 
rendering their ministry successful. And 
because it was impossible for him to be 
always present to teach and warn the chil- 
dren of men, he endeavoured by letters to 
imprint on their minds the practice of 
what they had been taught. A method, 
he tells us, he was resolved to pursue, as 
long as he continued an inhabitant of this 
world : thinking it meet, while he was in this 
tabernacle, to stir up, by putting them in mind 
of these things ; that so they migJit be able, 
after his decease, to have them always in re- 
membrance. 

Thus lived, thus died, Simon Peter, 
called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and 
at length to offer up his life in ratification 
of the doctrine he delivered, and the faith 
he maintained and propagated. 

SAINT 



( 328 ) 



SAINT PAUL. 



CHAP. I. 

Account of this Apostle, from his Birth till 
his Conversion to the Christian Faith. 

rglHIS great apostle of the Gentiles was 
a native of Tarsus, and a descendant 
from the ancient stock of Abraham. He 
was born about two years before the blessed 
Jesus, and belonged to the tribe of Benja- 
min, the youngest son of Jacob, who thus 
prophesied of him : Benjamin shall ravin 
as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the 
prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil: 
a prophetical character, which Tertullian 
and others will have to be accomplished 
in our apostle. For in his youth, or 
morning of his days, he persecuted the 
churches, destroying the flock of the Al- 
mighty; he devoured his prey. In his de- 
clining age, or evening of his days, he be- 
came a physician of the nations, feeding 
and establishing, with the greatest care and 
assiduity, the sheep of Christ, that great 
shepherd of Israel ; he divided the spoil. 
But this conjecture savours more of fancy 
than good sense. 

Tarsus, the place of this apostle's nati- 
vity, was the metropolis of Cilicia, and si- 
tuated about three hundred miles distant 
from Jerusalem ; it was exceedingly rich 
and populous, and a Roman municipium, 
or free corporation, invested with the pri- 
vileges of Rome by the two first emperors, 
as a reward for the citizens' firm adherence 
to the Cesars, in the rebellion of Crassus. 
St. Paul was therefore born a Roman citi- 
zen, and he often pleads this privilege on 
his trials. 

It was common for the inhabitants of 



Tarsus to send their children into other 
cities for learning and improvement ; es- 
pecially to Jerusalem, where they were so 
numerous, that they had a synagogue of 
their own, called the synagogue of Cili- 
cians. To this capital our apostle was also 
sent, and brought up at the school of that 
eminent rabbi, Gamaliel, in the most exact 
knowledge of the law of Moses. Nor did 
he fail to profit by the instructions of that 
great master ; for he so diligently con- 
formed himself to its precepts, that, with- 
out boasting, he asserts of himself, that 
touching the righteousness 0 f the law he was 
blameless, and defied even his enemies to 
allege any thing to the contrary, even in 
his youth. He joined himself to the sect 
of the Pharisees, the most strict order of 
the Jewish religion, but, at the same time, 
the proudest, and the greatest enemies to 
Christ and his holy religion. 

With regard to his double capacitj r , of 
Jewish extraction and Roman freedom, 
he had two names, Saul and Paul ; the 
former Hebrew, and the latter Latin. It 
was common for the descendants of Ben- 
jamin to give the name Saul to their chil- 
dren, ever since the time of the first king 
of Israel, who was chosen out of that tribe; 
and Paul was a name as common among the 
Romans. We must also consider his trade 
of tent-making as a part of his education : 
it being a constant practice of the Jews 
to bring up their children to some honest 
calling, that, in case of necessity, they 
might provide for themselves by the labour 
of their own hands. 

Saul having obtained a thorough know- 

t T 

ledge of the sciences cultivated by the Jews, 

and 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



329 



and being naturally of a very hot and fiery 
temper, became a great champion of the 
law of Moses, and the tradition of the 
elders, which he considered as zeal for God. 
This rendered him impatient of all opposi- 
tion to the doctrines and tenets he had im- 
bibed, and a vehement persecutor of the 
Christians, who were commonly reputed the 
enemies and destroyers of the Jewish eco- 
nomy. We must not, however, consider 
our apostle as guilty of the pride and hy- 
pocrisy of the Pharisees ; for he declares 
that he had ever been careful to act in con- 
formity to the dictates of his conscience, 
by which he thought himself bound to do 
many tilings contrary to the name of Jesns of 
Nazareth. It was, therefore, the prejudices 
of his education, and the natural warmth 
of his temper, that excited him to those 
violent persecutions of the Christians, for 
which he became so famous. 

The first action we find him engaged in, 
was the disputation he and his countrymen 
had with the martyr Stephen, with regard 
to the Messiah. The Christian was too 
hard for them in the dispute, but they were 
too powerful for him in their civil interests; 
for being enraged at his convincing argu- 

O O Oct 

ments, they carried him before the high- 
priest, who by false accusations condemned 
him to death. How far Saul was concerned 
in this cruel action is impossible to say; 
all we know is, that he kept the raiment of 
them that slew him. 

The storm of persecution against the 
church being thus begun, it increased pro- 
digiously, and the poor Christians of Jeru- 
salem were miserably harassed and dis- 
persed. In this persecution our apostle was 
a principal agent, searching all the adjacent 
parts for the afflicted saints, beating some 
in the synagogue, inflicting other cruelties, 
confining some in prison, and procuring 
others to be put to death. 



Nor could Jerusalem and the adjacent 
parts confine his fiery zeal : he applied to 
the Sanhedrim, and procured a commission 
from that court to extend his persecution 
to Damascus. How infernally insatiable 
is the fury of a misguided zeal ! how rest- 
less and unwearied in its designs of cruelty! 
It had already sufficiently harassed the 
poor Christians at Jerusalem ; but not con- 
tent with this, it persecuted them even to 
strange cities, even to Damascus itself, 
whither many of them had fled for shelter; 
resolving to bring them back to Jeru- 
salem, in order to their punishment and 
execution. 

It may not be improper here to observe, 
that the Jewish Sanhedrim had not only 
the power of seizing and scourging offen- 
ders against their law, within the bounds 
of their own country; but, by the conni- 
vance and favour of the Romans, might 
send into other countries, where there 
were any synagogues that acknowledged a 
dependence in religious affairs upon the 
council at Jerusalem, to apprehend them ; 
and accordingly Saul was sent to Damas- 
cus, to apprehend what Christians he could 
find in that city, and bring them bound to 
Jerusalem. 

But it was the will of Providence he 
should be employed in a work of a very 
different nature ; and, accordingly, he was 
stopped in his journey. For as he was 
travelling between Jerusalem and Damas- 
cus, to execute the commission of the Jew- 
ish Sanhedrim, a refulgent light, far ex- 
ceeding the brightness of the sun, darted 
upon him; at which both he and his com- 
panions were terribly amazed and con- 
founded, and immed at ly fell prostrate 
on the ground. While they lay in this 
state, a voice was heard, in the Hebrew 
language, saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
thou me? To which Saul replied, Who art 

4 0 thou, 



330 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



thou, Lord? And was immediately an- 
swered, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. 
It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 
As if the blessed Jesus had said, " All thy 
attempts to extirpate the faith in me will 
prove abortive ; and, like kicking against 
the spikes, wound and torment thyself." 

Saul was sufficiently convinced of his 
folly in having acted against Jesus, whom 
he was now assured to be the true Messiah, 
and asked, Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
do? On which the blessed Jesus replied, 
Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be 
told thee what thou must do. 

The company which were with him heard 
the voice, but did not see the person 
who spake from heaven. In all probability 
they were ignorant of the Hebrew lan- 
guage, and therefore only heard a confused 
sound ; for the apostle himself tells us, that 
they heard not the voice of him that spake; 
that is, they did not understand what was 
spoken. 

The apostle now arose from the earth, 
but found himself deprived of sight ; the 
resplendent brightness of the vision being 
too intense for mortal eyes to behold. His 
companions therefore led him by the 
hand to the city of Damascus, where he 
entered the house of Judas, and remained 
there three days without sight; nor did he 
either eat or drink, but spent his time in 
prayer to the Almighty, beseeching him 
to pardon the sins of his ignorance, and 
blinded zeal. 

In the mean time our blessed Saviour 
appeared in a vision to Ananias, (a very 
devout and religious man, highly esteemed 
by all the inhabitants of Damascus, though 
he professed the religion of the crucified 
Jesus,) commanding him to go into such a 
street in the city, and inquire in the house 
of Judas for one Saul of Tarsus, then of- 
fering up the most fervent prayers to the 



throne of grace. And the Lord said unto 
him, Arise, and go into the street which is 
called Straight, and inquire in the house of 
Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus; for, 
behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision 
a man named Ananias coming in, and putting 
his hand on him, that he inight receive his 
sight. 

Ananias, who was ever ready to obey 
the commands of the Most High, startled 
at the name, having heard of the bloody 
practices of Saul at Jerusalem, and what 
commission he was now come to execute 
in Damascus. He, therefore, suspected 
that his conversion was nothing more than 
a snare artfully laid by him against the 
Christians. But our blessed Saviour soon 
removed his apprehensions, by telling him 
that his suspicions were entirely destitute 
of foundation; and that he had now taken 
him, as a chosen vessel, to preach the gos- 
pel both to the Jews and Gentiles, and 
even before the greatest monarchs of the 
earth. Go thy way, said he, for he is a cho- 
sen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the 
Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. 
At the same time he acquainted him with 
the great persecutions he should undergo 
for the sake of the gospel. For I will shew 
him how great things he must suffer for my 
name's sake. 

This quieted the fears of Ananias, who 
immediately obeyed the heavenly vision, 
repaired to the house of Judas, and lay- 
ing his hands upon Saul, addressed him in 
words to this effect : — " That Jesus," said 
he, " who appeared to thee in the way, 
hath sent me to restore thy sight, and, by 
the infusion of his Spirit, to give thee the 
knowledge of those truths which thou hast 
blindly and ignorantly persecuted; but who 
now is willing to receive thee by baptism 
into his church, and make thee a member 
of his body." 

This 



THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



331 



This speech was no sooner pronounced, 
than there fell from his eyes thick films, 
resembling scales, and he received his 
sight; and after baptism conversed with the 
Christians at Damascus. Nor did he only 
converse with them ; he also, to the great 
astonishment of the whole church, preached 
the gospel to those Christians he came with 
an intention to destroy ; at the same time 
boldly asserting, that Jesus was the Christ, 
the Son of God, and proving it to the Jews 
with such demonstrative evidence, that they 
were confounded, and were utterly unable 
to answer him. 

CHAP. II. 

Continuation of the Life of St. Paul, from 
the Time of his Conversion, till the Council 
was held at Jerusalem. 

fMlHIS wonderful convert, at the in- 
stance of the divine command, retired 
into Arabia Petraea, where he received a 
full revelation of all the mysteries of Chris- 
tianity; for he himself declares that he con- 
ferred not with flesh and blood. Having 
preached in several parts of that country 
some time, he returned again to Damascus, 
applying himself with the utmost assiduity 
to the great work of the ministry; frequent- 
ing the synagogues there, powerfully con- 
futing the objections commonly made by the 
descendants of Jacob against Jesus of Na- 
zareth, and converting great numbers of 
Jews and Gentiles. 

He was, indeed, remarkably zealous in 
his preaching, and blessed with a very ex- 
traordinary method of reasoning, whereby 
he proved the essential doctrines of Chris- 
tianity beyond exception. This irritated 
the Jews to the highest degree ; and at 
length, after two or three years' continu- 
ance in those parts, they found means to 



prevail on the governor of Damascus to 
have him put to death. But they knew it 
would be difficult to take him, as he had 
many friends in the city ; they therefore 
kept themselves on a continual watch, 
searched all the houses where they sup- 
posed he might conceal himself, and also 
obtained a guard from the governor to ob- 
serve the gates, in order to prevent his es- 
caping from them. 

In this difficulty his Christian friends 
were far from deserting him : they tried 
every method that offered to procure his 
escape; but finding it impossible for him 
to pass through either of the gates of the 
city, they let him down from one of their 
houses through a window in a basket, 
over the wall ; by which means the cruel 
designs of his enemies were rendered 
abortive. 

Having thus escaped from his malicious 
persecutors, he repaired to Jerusalem, and, 
on his arrival, addressed himself to the 
church. But they, knowing well the for- 
mer temper and principles of this great 
persecutor, shunned his company, till Bar- 
nabas brought him to Peter, who was not 
yet cast into prison, and to James, bishop 
of Jerusalem, informing them of his mira- 
culous conversion, and that he had preached 
the gospel with the greatest boldness in the 
synagogues of Damascus; upon which they 
gladly received him, and familiarly enter- 
tained him fifteen days. 

During this interval, he was remarkably 
assiduous in preaching the gospel of the 
Son of God, and confuting the Hellenist 
Jews with the greatest courage and resolu- 
tion. But snares were laid for him, as ma- 
lice can as easily cease to be, as to remain 
inactive. Being warned by God in a vi- 
sion, that his testimony would not be re- 
ceived at Jerusalem, he thought proper to 
depart, and preach the gospel to the Gen- 
tiles 



332 THE LIVES OF 

tiles. Accordingly, being conducted by his 
brethren to Cesarea Philippi, he set sail for 
Tarsus, his native city; from whence he was 
soon after brought, by Barnabas, to Anti- 
och, to assist him in propagating Chris- 
tianity in that city. 

In this employment he spent one whole 
year, and had the satisfaction of seeing 
the gospel flourish in a very remarkable 
manner. 

It was in this city that the disciples first 
acquired the name of Christians, before 
which they were styled Nazarenes ; but this 
appellation soon prevailed all over the 
world, and the latter was in a few ages 
almost entirely forgotten. 

About this time a terrible famine, fore- 
told by Agabus, happened in several parts 
of the Roman empire, particularly Juclea, 
which induced the Christians at Antioch 
to compassionate the miseries of their bre- 
thren at Jerusalem. They accordingly raised 
considerable contributions for their relief, 
which they sent to the capital of Judea by 
the hands of Barnabas and Saul, who, im- 
mediately after executing their commission, 
returned to Antioch. But while they w r ere 
performing the public exercises of their re- 
ligion, it was revealed to them by the Holy 
Ghost, that they should set apart Barnabas 
and Saul, to preach the gospel in other 
places : which was accordingly done, and 
they were immediately deputed for that 
service by prayer, fasting, and the imposi- 
tion of hands. 

The first place they visited was Seleucia, 
where they did not continue long, but 
sailed for Cyprus ; and at Salamis, a great 
city in that island, they preached in the 
synagogue of the Jews. From thence 
they removed to Paphos, the residence of 
Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of the island, 
a man of great wisdom and prudence, but 
miserably seduced by the wicked artifices 



THE APOSTLES. 

of Bar- Jesus, a Jewish impostor, who 
styled himself Elymas, or the magician, 
who also vehemently opposed the apostles, 
and kept the proconsul from embracing the 
faith. 

The proconsul, however, called for the 
apostles, who, after severely checking 
Elymas for his malicious^ opposition to the 
truth, told him, the divine vengeance was 
now ready to seize upon him ; and imme- 
diately he was deprived of his sight. The 
vengeance of the Almighty was remark- 
ably displayed in this punishment, by de- 
priving him of his bodily eyes, who had so 
wilfully and maliciously shut those of his 
mind against the light of the gospel, and 
also endeavoured to keep others in dark- 
ness and ignorance. This miracle convin- 
ced the proconsul of the truth of the doc- 
trines taught by the apostles, and made him 
a convert to the faith. 

St. Paul, after this remarkable success 
in Cyprus, repaired to Phrygia, in Pam- 
phylia, and taking another with him, in 
the room of Mark, who was gone to Jeru- 
salem, travelled to Antioch, the metropolis 
of Pisiclia. 

Soon after their arrival, they entered the 
synagogue of the Jews, on the sabbath- 
day ; and after the reading of the law, 
Paul, being invited by the rulers of the 
synagogue, delivered himself in the follow- 
ing manner: — "Hearken, all ye descend- 
ants of Jacob, and ye that fear the Al- 
mighty, to the words of my mouth. The 
God of Israel made choice of our fathers, 
and loved them when they had no city of 
their own to dwell in, but were strangers 
and slaves in Egypt, bringing them from 
thence with a mighty hand and a stretched- 
out arm ; fed them in the wilderness forty 
years ; and would not suffer his anger to 
arise against them, though they often pro- 
voked him in the desert. On their arri- 
val 



THE LIVES OF 

val in the land he promised their fathers, 
he destroyed the nations that inhabited it 
and placed them in that fruitful country, 
dividing it to them by lot. 

" When they were settled in the land, 
he save them Judges durino- four hundred 
and fifty years, till Samuel the prophet. 
But on their desiring a king, he placed 
over them Saul, the son of Kish, a Ben- 
jamite, who reigned about forty years. 
After his death, he placed David on the 
throne of Israel, giving him this testimony, 
I have found David the so?i Jesse, a man 
after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my 
will. And, according to his promise, the 
Almighty hath raised up to the sons of 
David, a Saviour, Jesus, which is Christ the 
Lord; the baptism of repentance having 
been preached before his coming by John. 
And as his forerunner executed his office, 
he asked his followers, Whom think ye that 
lam? You must not mistake me for the 
Messiah : he will soon follow me ; but I 
am not worthy to perform the meanest 
office for him. 

" To you, therefore, ye descendants of 
Abraham, and all others who fear the 
Almighty, is the word of this salvation sent. 
For the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and 
rulers of Israel, being ignorant of him, 
and the voices of the prophets, though 
read every sabbath in the synagogues, ful- 
filled their predictions by condemning the 
immaculate Son of the most High. They 
found, indeed, no fault in him, though 
they earnestly desired Pilate that he might 
be slain. 

" When every thing that had been writ- 
ten by the prophets concerning him was 
fulfilled, they took him from the tree, and 
deposited his body in the chambers of the 
grave. But death had no power to de- 
tain him ; his Almighty Father raised him 
from the habitations of the dead. After 



THE APOSTLES. 333 

which he was seen for many days by his 
disciples, who attended him from Galilee, 
and were the witnesses, chosen by Omni- 
potence, of these great and miraculous 
works. And we now declare unto you glad 
tidings ; namely, that the promise made by 
the Almighty to our forefathers, he hath 
performed to us their children, by raising 
Jesus from the dead. The prophet David 
also said, Thou art my Son, this day have I 
begotten thee. He also foretold, that he 
should return from the chambers of the 
dust, and no more be subject to corruption. 
/ will give him, said he, the sure mercies of 
David. And again, thou shalt not suffer thine 
holy One to see corruption. Now this prophe- 
cy must relate to the Messiah ; for David 
himself, after he had swayed the sceptre of 
Israel a certain time, fell asleep, was depo- 
sited in the chambers of the grave, and his 
flesh saw corruption : but the great Son of 
David, whom the Almighty raised from 
the dead, never saw corruption. 

" Be it therefore known unto you, men 
and brethren, that through this Saviour is 
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. 
It is by his merits we are justified from all 
things, from which we could not be justi- 
fied by the law of Moses. Be careful, there- 
fore, lest what was foretold by the pro- 
phets come upon you : Behold, ye despi- 
sers, and wonder, and perish ; for 1 work a 
work in your days, a work which you will in 
no wise believe, though a man declare it unto 
you." 

This spirited address of the great apostle 
carried with it its own weight, and obtained 
from the converted Jews a request that it 
should again be delivered the ensuing sab- 
bath, when almost the whole city flocked 
to hear the apostle ; at which the Jews 
were filled with envy, and contradicted 
Paul, uttering many blasphemous expres- 
sions against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 

4 P But 



334 THE LIVES OF 

But their opposition could not daunt the 
apostles, who boldly declared, that our 
blessed Saviour had charged them to 
preach the gospel first to the Jews, but as 
they so obstinately rejected it, they were 
now to address themselves to the Gentiles : 
who hearing this, rejoiced exceedingly, 
magnifying the works of the Almighty, and 
many of them embraced the doctrines of 
the gospel. 

This increased the malice and fury of 
the Jews, who, by false and artful insinu- 
ations, prevailed on some of the more bigot- 
ed and honourable women to bring over 
their husbands to their party ; by which 
means Paul and Barnabas were driven out 
of the cit}r. At which the apostles depart- 
ed, shaking off the dust of their feet, as 
a testimony of the sense they had of the 
ingratitude and infidelity of the Jews. 

From Antioch they went to Iconium, 
the metropolis of Lycaonia, a province of 
the Lesser Asia, where they entered into 
the synagogue of the Jews, notwithstand- 
ing the ill-treatment they had met with 
from their brethren in other places : for so 
great was their zeal for the gospel, that they 
were not to be deterred from preaching it 
by ill-usage, however violent. Therefore, 
according to their usual method, they again 
began their preaching in the assembly 
of the Israelites ; and the Almighty so 
far assisted their endeavours, that many, 
both Jews and proselytes, believed. Their 
success encouraged them to continue a 
considerable time in the city, to instruct 
the converts, and confirm their faith by 
miracles. But though they had gained a 
considerable part of the city to the faith, 
yet many continued in their infidelity ; 
and the old leaven of Jewish malice began 
again to ferment; and the unbelieving- 
Jews, having stirred up many Gentiles 
against the apostles, at last prevailed on 



THE APOSTLES. 

the multitude to stone them. But the 
apostles, having timely notice of their 
design, fled from the city, and travelled to 
Lystra, where they preached the gospel to 
the inhabitants, and those who dwelt in the 
adjacent country. 

Among the converts at Lystra was a 
man who had been lame from his mother's 
womb, and never had walked. But Paul, 
perceiving that he had faith to be healed, 
thought proper to add the cure of his body 
to that of his soul ; knowing that it would 
not only be beneficial to him, but to all the 
rest of the believers, by confirming their 
faith. And that the miracle might be 
wrought in the most conspicuous manner, 
he, in the midst of the congregation, said 
in an audible voice to the man, Stand up- 
right 071 thy feet. And the words were no 
sooner pronounced, than his strength was 
at once restored, and he leaped up and 
walked. 

The people who beheld this miracle well 
knew that it was not wrought by any hu- 
man power ; but having been initiated in 
the superstitious customs of the Heathens, 
they cried out, The gods are come down to us 
in the likeness of men. Accordingly, they 
called Barnabas Jupiter, because of his 
venerable gravity ; and Paul Mercury, 
from his eloquence. Nor was it long be- 
fore the whole city resounded with accla- 
mations ; so that almost all the inhabitants 
gathered themselves together, and, pre- 
ceded by the priest of Jupiter, and oxen 
dressed in garlands, they came to the 
house where the apostles were, intending 
to do sacrifice to them. 

But as soon as Barnabas and Paul under- 
stood their intentions, they were greatly 
affected at this superstitious design ; and 
rending their clothes, to express their 
grief and abhorrence of the action, ran to 
them, crying out," Ye men of Lystra, ye 

are 



THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



335 



are mistaken in the object of your worship ; 
for though we have done many miracles 
in the name and by the power of Christ, 
yet we are no more than men, and subject 
to the same bodily infirmities with your- 
selves, and preach unto you the glad tid- 
ings of salvation, that ye may forsake the 
vanities of this world, and turn to the liv- 
ing God, who created the heavens and the 
earth, the sea, and all the creatures they 
contain. This omnipotent Being suffered 
all nations formerly to walk in their own 
ways, though he never left himself without 
witness, doing the greatest good to the 
children of men ; it is he that sendeth rain 
from heaven, and crowneth the year with 
fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with joy 
and gladness." 

This argument of the apostles had the 
desired effect; and the people were at last, 
though with difficulty, persuaded to lay 
aside their intended idolatrous sacrifice. 
And surely no argument could be more 
proper to affect the minds of the people. 
Is it possible to survey the several parts of 
the creation, and not to discover in every 
place evident traces of an infinite wisdom, 
power, and goodness ? Who can survey 
universal nature, and not at once see and 
admire its great Author, who has disposed 
of all created things with such order and 
regularity, as to display, in the clearest 
manner, his own power and glory ? Be- 
hold the sun ! how justly is that source 
of light and heat placed in the centre of 
the planetary system, that each may enjoy 
its destined share of his prolific beams ; so 
that the earth is not burned by a too near 
approach, nor chilled by the northern 
blasts, from too great a recess ; but im- 
pregnated with fruits and flowers by the 
happy influence of a vital heat, and crown- 
ed with luxuriant plenty by the benign 
influence of the season. It is that omni- 



potent Being, who poises the balancings of 
the clouds, that divides a watercourse for the 
oveif owing of waters, and a way for the 
lightning of the thunder. Who can bind 
the benign influences of Pleiades, or loose the 
bands of Orion ? Or who can bring forth 
Mazzaroth in his season, or guide Arcturus 
with his sons ? Do these happen by chance, 
or by the secret appointment of infinite 
Wisdom ? Who can contemplate the won- 
derful properties of the air, the great trea- 
sury of vital breath, and not reflect on 
the divine Wisdom that formed it? If 
we survey the earth, we there discover 
the footsteps of an almighty Being, who 
stretcheth the north over the empty space, and 
hangeth the earth upon nothing ; filling it 
with great variety of admirable and useful 
creatures, and maintaining them all by the 
bounty of his hand. It is he that clothes 
the grass with a delightful verdure, that 
crowns the year with Ids loving-kindness, and 
causes tlie valleys to stand thick with corn. 
It is he that maketh the gi-ass to grow upon 
the mountains, and herbs for the service of 
man. He adorns the lilies of the field, 
that neither toil nor spin, with a glory that 
excels the pomp and grandeur of Solo- 
mon's court. He shut up the sea with doors, 
and said, Hitherto shall thou come, and no 
farther ; and here shall thy proud waves be 
stayed. It is that almighty Being that 
arrests the storm, and smooths the tempes- 
tuous billows of the deep ; that delivereth 
the mariner from all his troubles, and 
bringeth his ship into the desired haven of 
safety. How reasonable, therefore, is it, 
that we should worship and adore this om- 
nipotent, this kind Creator, and not trans- 
fer the honours, due to him alone, to frail 
mortals ; much less to dumb idols, the 
work of men's hands ! 

The apostles indefatigably persevered in 
the execution of their important commis- 
sion, 



336 THE LIVES OF 

sion, declaring, wherever they went, the 
glad tidings of salvation, through repent- 
ance unto life, and faith in the Lord Je- 
sus Christ. But the malice of the Jews 
still pursued them; for some of these bi- 
goted Israelites coming from Antioch and 
Iconium, exasperated and stirred up the 
multitude ; so that those very persons who 
could hardly be restrained from offering 
sacrifice to them, now used them like slaves, 
stoning them in so cruel a manner, that 
Paul was thought to be dead, and as such 
they dragged him out of the city ; but 
while the Christians of Lystra were attend- 
ing on his body, probably in order to carry 
him to the grave, he arose and returned 
with them into the city, and the next day 
departed with Barnabas to Derbe, where 
they preached the gospel, and converted 
many ; no danger being able to terrify 
them from the work of the ministry, and 
publishing the glad tidings of salvation in 
every place. 

They did not, however, long continue 
at Derbe, but returned to Lystra, Iconium, 
Antioch, and Pisidia, confirming the Chris- 
tians of those places in the faith, earnestly 
persuading them to persevere, and not be 
discouraged by those troubles and perse- 
cutions, which they must expect would 
attend the profession of the gospel. And 
that the affairs of the church might be con- 
ducted with more regularity, they ordained 
elders and pastors to teach, to instruct, 
and to watch over them ; and then left 
them to the protection of the Almighty, to 
whose care they commended them by 
prayer and fasting. 

After leaving Antioch, they passed thro' 
Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia; and after 
preaching the gospel at Perga, they went 
clown to Attalia. 

Having thus finished the circuit of their 
ministry, they returned back to Antioch, 



THE APOSTLES. 

in Syria, from whence they at first de- 
parted. Here they summoned the church, 
and gave them an account of their minis- 
try, the success with which it had been 
attended in different parts, and how great a 
door had thus been opened for the conver- 
sion of the Gentile world. 

While St. Paul continued at Antioch, 
that famous controversy, with regard to 
the observation of the Jewish ceremonies 
under the Christian dispensation, was set 
on foot by certain Jewish converts, to 
the great disturbance of the whole church ; 
and it was determined to send Paul and 
Barnabas to consult with the apostles and 
church at Jerusalem, that this affair might 
be settled on the most solid foundation. — 
On their arrival at Jerusalem they first ad- 
dressed themselves to Peter, James, and 
John, the pillars of that church, by whom 
they were kindly entertained, and admit- 
ted to the right hand of fellowship : and 
perceiving, by the account given them by 
St. Paul, that the gospel of the uncircum- 
cision was committed to him, as that of the 
circumcision was to Peter, they agreed that 
Peter should preach to the Jews, and 
Paul to the Gentiles. This being deter- 
mined, a council was summoned, wherein 
Peter declared his opinion, and Paul and 
Barnabas acquainted them with the great 
things God, by their ministry, had done 
among the Gentiles ; a plain evidence that 
they were accepted by the Almighty, 
though uncircumcised, as well as the Jews, 
with all their legal rites and privileges ; 
accordingly, it was unanimously deter- 
mined, that the Gentiles were not under 
the obligation of the law of Moses, and 
therefore that some persons of their own 
church should be joined with Paul and 
Barnabas, to carry the decrees of the 
council to Antioch, for their farther satis- 
faction in this matter. Nothing tends 

more 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



337 



more to impede the progress of vital reli- 
gion, than a bigoted attachment to unes- 
sential forms and modes. 

CHAP. III. 

Transactions of this great Apostle, from the 
Time of the Synod at Jerusalem, till his 
Preaching at Athens. 

rjHHE controversy concerning the obser- 
vation of Jewish ceremonies in the 
Christian church, being decided in favour 
of St. Paul, he and his companions returned 
back to Antioch; and soon after Peter him- 
self came down. On reading the decretal 
epistle in the church, the converts conversed 
freely and inoffensively with the Gentiles, 
till some of the Jews coming thither from 
Jerusalem, Peter withdrew his conversation, 
as if it had been a thing unwarrantable and 
unlawful. By such a strange method of 
proceeding, the minds of many were dis- 
satisfied, and their consciences very uneasy. 
St. Paul with the greatest concern observed 
it, and publicly rebuked Peter, with that 
sharpness and severity which his unwarrant- 
able practice deserved. 

Soon after this dispute, Paul and Bar- 
nabas resolved to visit the churches they 
had planted among the Gentiles, and Bar- 
nabas was desirous of taking with them his 
cousin Mark ; but this, Paul strenuously 
opposed, as he had left them in their former 
journey. This trifling dispute rose to such 
a height, that these two great apostles, and 
fellow-labourers in the gospel, parted : Bar- 
nabas, taking Mark with him, repaired to 
Cyprus, his native country ; and Paul, hav- 
ing made choice of Silas, and recommended 
the success of his undertaking to the care 
of Divine Providence, set forward on his 
intended journey. 

They first visited the churches of Syria 



and Cilicia, confirming the people in the 
faith by their instructions and exhortations. 
Hence they sailed to Crete, where Paul 
preached the gospel, and constituted Titus 
to be the first bishop and pastor of the 
island, leaving him to settle those affairs of 
the church which time would not permit 
the apostle to settle himself. From hence 
Paul and Silas returned back into Cilicia, 
and came to Lystra, where they found Ti- 
mothy, whose father was a Greek, but his 
mother a Jewish convert, and by her he 
had been brought up under all the advan- 
tages of a pious and religious education, 
especially with regard to the holy Scrip- 
tures, which he had studied with the great- 
est assiduity and success. This person St. 
Paul designed for the companion of his 
travels, and a special instrument in the 
ministry of the gospel. But knowing that 
his being uncircumcised would prove a 
stumbling-block to the Jews, he caused him 
to be circumcised; being willing, in lawful 
and indifferent matters, to conform him- 
self to the tempers and apprehensions of 
men, in order to save their souls. In this 
instance the apostle evinced much pru- 
dence, well knowing that inveterate pre- 
judices in religious matters are not easily 
overcome ; for which reason he is said to 
become all things to all men. 

Every thing being ready for their jour- 
ney, St. Paul and his companions departed 
from Lystra, passing through Phrygia, 
and the country of Galatia, where the 
apostle was entertained with the greatest 
kindness and veneration, the people look- 
ing upon him as an angel sent immediately 
from heaven ; and being by revelation for- 
bidden to go into Asia, he was commanded 
by a second vision to repair to Macedonia, 
to preach the gospel. Accordingly, our 
apostle prepared to pass from Asia into 
Europe. 

4 Q Here 



338 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



Here St. Luke joined them, and became 
ever after the inseparable companion of 
St. Paul, who being desirous of finding the 
speediest passage into Macedonia, took 
ship with his companions Silas, Luke, and 
Timothy, and came to Samothracia, an 
island in the iEgean Sea, not far from 
Thrace ; and the next day he went to Ne- 
apolis, a port of Macedonia. Leaving Ne- 
apolis, they repaired to Philippi, the me- 
tropolis of that part of Macedonia, and 
a Roman colony, where they stayed some 
days. 

In this city Paul, according to his con- 
stant practice, preached in a proseucha, or 
oratory of the Jews, which stood by the 
river-side, at some distance from the city, 
and was much frequented by the devout 
women of their religion, who met there to 
pray and hear the law. To these St. Paul 
preached the glad tidings of the gospel; 
and, by the influence of the Spirit of 
God upon their hearts, converted many, 
especially a certain woman named Lydia, 
a Jewish proselyte, a seller of purple in 
that city, but a native of Thyatira. This 
woman being baptized, with her whole 
family, was so importunate with St. Paul 
and his companions to abide at her house, 
that they were constrained to accept of her 
invitation. 

During the time of the apostles residing 
in this city, they continued their daily 
course of worshipping at the same ora- 
tory; and, after several days, as they were 
repairing to the same place of devotion, 
there met them a damsel who was pos- 
sessed of a spirit of divination, by whom 
her masters acquired very great advantage. 
This woman followed Paul and his compa- 
nions, crying out, These men arc the ser- 
vants of the most high God, which shew un- 
to us the way of salvation! Paul, at first, 
took no notice of her, not being willing to 



multiply miracles without necessity. But 
when he saw her following, them several 
days together, he began to be troubled; 
and, in imitation of his great Master, who 
would not suffer the devil to acknowledge 
him, lest his false and lying tongue should 
prejudice the truth in the minds of men, 
commanded the spirit, in the name of Jesus, 
to come out of her. The evil spirit with 
reluctance obeyed, and left the damsel that 
very instant. 

This miraculous cure proving a great 
loss to her masters, who acquired large 
gains from her soothsaying, they were 
filled with envy and malice against the 
apostles : and by their instigation the mul- 
titude arose, seized upon Paul and his 
companions, and hurried them before the 
magistrates and governors of the colony; 
accusing them of introducing many inno- 
vations which were prejudicial to the state, 
and unlawful for them to comply with, as 
being Romans. 

The magistrates being concerned for 
the tranquillity of the state, and jealous 
of all disturbances, were very forward to 
punish the offenders, against whom great 
numbers of the multitude testified ; and 
therefore commanded the officers to strip 
them, and scourge them severely, as sedi- 
tious persons. 

This was accordingly executed ; after 
which the apostles were committed to 
close custody, the jailer receiving more 
than ordinary charge to keep them safely ; 
and he accordingly thrust them into the 
inner prison, and made their feet fast in 
the stocks. But the most obscure dun- 
geon, or the pitchy mantle of the night, 
cannot intercept the beams of divine joy 
and comfort from the souls of pious men. 
Their minds were all serenity; and at mid- 
night they prayed and sang praises so loud, 
that they were heard in every part of the 

prison. 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



339 



prison. Nor were their prayers offered to 
the throne of grace in vain; an earthquake 
shook the foundations of the prison, opened 
the doors, loosed the chains, and set the 
prisoners at liberty. 

This convulsion of nature roused the 
jailer from his sleep ; who, concluding 
from what he saw that all his prisoners 
were escaped, was going to put a period 
to his life; but Paul observing him, has- 
tily cried, Do thyself no harm, for we are 
all here. The keeper was now as greatly 
surprised at the goodness of the apostles, 
as he was before terrified at the thoughts 
of their escape ; and calling for a light, he 
came immediately into the presence of the 
apostles, fell clown at their feet, and took 
them from the dungeon, and brought them 
to his own house, washed their stripes, 
and beaded of them to instruct him in the 
knowledge of that God who was so mighty 
to save. 

St. Paul readily granted his request, and 
replied, that if he believed in Jesus Christ, 
he might be saved, with his whole house ; 
accordingly the jailer with all his family 
were, after a competent instruction, bap- 
tized, and received as members of the 
church of Christ. How happy a change 
does the doctrine of the gospel make in the 
minds of men ! how does it smooth the 
roughest tempers, and instil the sweetest 
principles of civility and good-nature into 
the minds of men ! he who but a few mo- 
ments before tyrannized over the apostles 
with the most cruel usa^e, now treats them 

•11*' F * i • 

with the greatest respect, and the highest 
marks of kindness ! 

As soon as it was day, the magistrates, 
either hearing what had happened, or re- 
flecting on what they had done as too 
harsh and unjustifiable, sent their sergeant 
to the jailer with orders to discharge the 
apostles. The jailer joyfully delivered the 



message, and bid them depart in peace : 
but Paul, that he might make the magis- 
trates sensible what injury they had done 
them, and how unjustly they had punished 
them without examination or trial, sent 
them word, that as they thought proper to 
scourge and imprison Romans, contrary to 
the laws of the empire, he expected they 
should come themselves, and make them 
some satisfaction. 

The magistrates were terrified at this 
message; well knowing how dangerous it 
was to provoke the formidable power of the 
Romans, who never suffered any freeman 
to be beaten uncondemned ; they came 
therefore to the prison, and veiy submis- 
sively entreated the apostles to depart with- 
out any further disturbance. 

This small recompense for the cruel 
usage they had received was accepted by 
the meek followers of the blessed Jesus; 
they left the prison, and retired to the 
house of Lyclia, where they comforted their 
brethren with an account of their deli- 
verance, and departed ; having laid the 
foundation of a very eminent church, as 
it appears from St. Paul's Epistle to the 
Philippians. 

Leaving Philippi, Paul and his compa- 
nions continued their journey towards the 
west, till they came to Thessalonica, the 
metropolis of Macedonia, about a hundred 
and twenty miles from Philippi. On their 
arrival at Thessalonica, Paul, according to 
his custom, went into the synagogue of the 
Jews, and preached unto his countrymen; 
the ungrateful usage he had met with in 
the other places not discouraging him in 
persevering in so glorious a work. His 
doctrine, however, was strenuously opposed 
by the Jews, who would not allow Jesus to 
be the Messiah, because of his ignominious 
death. 

During the stay of the apostles at Thes- 
salonica, 



340 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



salonica, they lodged in the house of a 
certain Christian named Jason, who en- 
tertained them \ery courteously. But the 
Jews would not suffer the apostles to con- 
tinue at rest. They refused to embrace 
the gospel themselves, and therefore en- 
vied its success, and determined to oppose 
its progress. Accordingly they gathered 
together a great number of lewd and 
wicked wretches, who beset the house of 
Jason, intending to take Paul, and deliver 
him up to an incensed multitude. But 
in this they were disappointed ; Paul and 
Silas being removed from thence by the 
Christians, and concealed in some other 
part of the city. 

Their fury however was rather exaspe- 
rated than lessened at losing their prey: 
and, as they could not find the apostles of 
the blessed Jesus, they determined to be 
revenged on Jason, who had concealed 
them ; accordingly they seized on him, 
with some others of the brethren, and car- 
ried them before the magistrates of the city, 
accusing them, as they had before done 
the apostles themselves at Philippi, of dis- 
turbing the peace of the empire, and set- 
ting up Jesus as a king, in derogation of 
the emperor's dignity and authority. This 
accusation induced both the people and 
the magistrates to be their enemies ; and 
though Jason was only accused of harbour- 
ing those innovators, yet the magistrates 
could not be prevailed upon to dismiss him 
and his companions, till they had given 
security for their appearance. 

As soon as the tumult was over, the 
Thessalonians, who had been converted by 
them, sent away Paul and Silas by night 
to Berea, a city about fifty miles south of 
Thessalonica, but out of the power of their 
enemies. Here also Paul's great love for 
his countrymen the Jews, and his earnest 
desire of their salvation, excited him to 



preach to them in particular ; accordingly 
he entered into their synagogue, and ex- 
plained the gospel unto them, proving, out 
of the scriptures of the Old Testament, 
the truth of the doctrines he advanced. 
These Jews were of a more ingenuous and 
candid temper than those of Thessalonica : 
and as they heard him, with great reve- 
rence and attention, expound and apply 
the scriptures ; so they searched diligently 
whether his proofs were proper and perti- 
nent, and consonant to the sense of the 
texts he referred to : and having found 
every thing to be agreeable to what Paul 
had advanced, many of them believed ; 
and several Gentiles, following their exam- 
ple, became obedient to the faith, among 
whom were several women of quality. — 
The news of this remarkable success was 
carried to Thessalonica, and greatly in- 
censed the inveterate enemies of the gospel 
there, who accordingly repaired to Berea, 
and raised tumults against the apostle ; so 
that Paul, to avoid their fury, was forced 
to leave the town ; but Silas and Timothy, 
either less known or less envied, continued 
still there. 

Paul leaving Berea, under the conduct 
of certain guides, it was said he designed 
to retire by sea out of Greece, that his rest- 
less enemies might cease their persecution; 
but the guides, according to Paul's order, 
brought him to Athens, and left him there, 
after receiving from him an order for Silas 
and Timotheus to repair to him as soon as 
possible. 

While St. Paul continued at Athens, ex- 
pecting the arrival of Silas and Timothy, 
he walked up and down, to take a more 
accurate survey of the city, which he 
found miserably overrun with superstition 
and idolatry. The inhabitants were re- 
markably religious and devout ; they had 
a great number of gods, whom they ador 



THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



341 



ed ; false, indeed, they were, but such as 
they, being destitute of revelation, ac- 
counted true : and so very careful were 
they that no deity should want due honour 
from them, that they had an altar in- 
scribed to the unknown god. A great 
variety of reasons are given for this in- 
scription: some affirm, that it was the name 
which the Pagans generally gave to the 
God of the Jews ; but others think that it 
included all the gods of Asia, Europe, and 
Africa. 

These superstitious practices grieved the 
spirit of the apostle ; accordingly, he ex- 
erted all his strength for their conversion : 
he disputed on the sabbath-days in the sy- 
nagogues of the Jews ; and at other times 
took all opportunities of preaching to the 
Athenians the coming of the Messiah to 
save the world. 

This doctrine was equally new and 
strange to the Athenians ; and though they 
did not persecute him as the Jews did, yet 
his preaching Jesus was considered, by the 
Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, as a 
fabulous legend; and, by the more sober 
part, as a discovery of some new gods, 
which they had not yet placed in their 
temples : and though they were not un- 
willing to receive any new deities, yet as 
the Areopagus, the supreme court of the 
city, was to judge of all gods, to whom 
public worship might be allowed, they 
brought him before those judges, to give 
an account of his doctrine. 

Paul being placed before the judges of 
this high assembly, readily gave them an 
account of his doctrine in a grave and 
elegant speech ; wherein he did not tell 
them they were horrible and gross idola- 
ters, lest he should offend them, and there- 
by prevent them from listening to his rea- 
sons ; but having commended them for 
their religious dispositions, he took occa- 



sion, from the altar inscribed to the Unknown 
God, to make a proper defence of his doc- 
trine. " I endeavour," said he, " only to 
explain that altar to you, and manifest the 
nature of that God whom ye ignorantly 
worship. The true God is he that made 
the world, and all things therein ; and who 
being Lord over all, dwells not in tem- 
ples made with hands, nor is he to be wor- 
shipped in lifeless idols. As he is the crea- 
tor of all things, he cannot be confined to the 
workmanship of man, whether temples or 
statues ; nor stand in need of sacrifices, 
since he is the fountain of life to all things. 
He made from one common original the 
whole race of mankind, and hath wisely 
determined their dependence on him, that 
they might be obliged to seek after him 
and serve him. A truth perceivable in the 
darkest state of ignorance, and acknow- 
ledged by one of your own poets. If 
this be the nature of God, it is surely the 
highest absurdity to represent him by an 
image or similitude. The divine patience 
hath been too much exercised already 
with such gross abuses in religion ; but now 
God expects a thorough reformation, hav- 
ing sent his Son Jesus Christ to make him- 
self known to the world, and at the same 
time to inform them that he hath appointed 
a day of general judgment, when the reli- 
gion of mankind shall be tried by the test 
of the gospel, before his only begotten Son, 
who is appointed sole judge of the quick 
and dead, and whose commission to that 
high office hath been ratified by the Al- 
mighty, in raising him from the dead." 

On his mentioning the resurrection, 
some of the philosophers mocked and de- 
rided him ; others, more modest, but not 
satisfied with the proofs he had given, 
gravely answered, We would hear thee again 
of this matter. After which, Paul departed 
from the court ; but not without some suc- 

4 R cess, 



342 THE LIVES OF 

cess, for a few of his auditors believed and 
attended his instructions. 

Thus boldly did this intrepid servant and 
soldier of Jesus Christ assert the cause of 
his divine Master, among the great, the 
wise, and the learned ; and reason with 
great persuasion and eloquence on the na- 
ture of God, and the manner in which he 
has commanded his creatures to worship 
him, even in spirit and in truth. 

CHAP. IV. 

Success of St. Paul's Ministry at Corintli 
and Ephesas. 

TIRING St. Paul's stay at Athens, 
Timothy, according to the order he 
had received, came to him out of Mace- 
donia ; and brought an account that the 
Christians at Thessalonica were under per- 
secution from their fellow-citizens, ever 
since his departure : at which St. Paul was 
greatly concerned, and at first inclined to 
visit them in person, to confirm them in 
the faith they had embraced ; but being 
hindered by the enemies of the gospel, he 
sent Timothy to comfort them, and put 
them in mind of what they had at first 
heard, namely, that persecution would be 
the constant attendant on their profession. 

On Timothy's departure, St. Paul left 
Athens, and travelled to Corinth, a very 
populous place, and famous for its trade. 
Here he found Aquila and Priscilla his 
wife, lately come from Italy, having been 
banished from Rome by the decree of 
Claudius. And they being of the same 
trade he himself had learned in his youth, 
lie wrought with them, that he might not 
be burdensome to the new converts ; — ho- 
nest ministers are not mercenary. 

After some stay at Corinth, the apostle 
was joined by Silas and Timothy, and dis- 
puted frequently in the synagogue, rea- 
soning, and proving that Jesus was the true 



THE APOSTLES. 

Messiah. This exasperated the Jews to the 
greatest degree, and what they could not 
conquer by argument and force of reason, 
they endeavoured to carry by noise and 
clamour, blended with blasphemies and 
revilings ; the last refuge of an impotent 
and baffled cause. But St. Paul, to testify 
his resentment, shook his garments, and 
told them, that since they were determined 
to pull down the vengeance of Heaven upon 
their own heads, he was absolutely guilt- 
less and innocent, and would henceforth 
address himself to the Gentiles. 

Accordingly he left them, and repaired 
to the house of Justus, a religious prose- 
lyte, where, by his preaching and miracles, 
he converted great numbers to the faith ; 
among whom was Crispus, the chief ruler 
of the synagogue, and Gaius, and Stepha- 
nas, who, with their families, were bap- 
tized, and admitted members of the Chris- 
tian church. 

But lest the ungrateful, yea, cruel beha- 
viour of unbelievers, should discourage this 
able minister from prosecuting the glorious 
work of the conversion of sinners, our dear 
Redeemer appeared to him in a vision, and 
told him, that, notwithstanding the bad 
success he had hitherto met with, there was 
a large harvest to be gathered in that place; 
that he should not be afraid of his enemies, 
but preach the gospel boldly and securely, 
for that he himself would protect and pre- 
serve him. 

About this time he seems to have writ- 
ten his first epistle to the Thessalonians, 
Silas and Timothy being lately returned 
from thence, and delivered the message for 
which he had sent them thither. The 
principal design of this epistle is, to con- 
firm them in the belief of the Christian re- 
ligion, and to excite them to persevere in 
it, notwithstanding all the malice of their 
enemies, and the persecutions they must 

expect 




THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



343 



expect to suffer, and to instruct them in 
the duties of a religious life. 

During the apostle's stay at Corinth, he 
wrote his second epistle to the Thessalo- 
nians, to supply his absence. In this 
epistle he again endeavours to confirm 
their minds in the truth of the gospel, and 
prevent their being shaken with those 
troubles which the wicked and unbelieving 
Jews would be continually raising against 
them. And because some passages in his 
former epistle, relating to the destruction 
of the Jews, had been misunderstood, as if 
the day of the Lord was near at hand, he 
rectifies these mistakes, and shews the signs 
that must precede our Lord's coming to 
judgment. 

St. Paul, on his leaving the church at 
Corinth, took ship at Cenchrea, the port 
of Corinth, for Syria, taking with him 
Aquila and Priscilla; and on his arrival at 
Ephesus, he preached awhile in the syna- 
gogue of the Jews, promising to return to 
them after keeping the passover at Jeru- 
salem. Accordingly he again took ship, 
and landed at Cesarea, and from thence 
travelled to Jerusalem, where he kept the 
feast, visited the church, and then repaired 
to Antioch. Here he staj^ed some time, 
and then traversed the country of Galatia 
and Phrygia, confirming the newly con- 
verted Christians, till he came to Ephesus. 

During the time he spent in this large 
circuit, Providence took care of the churches 
of Ephesus and Corinth by the means of 
one Apollos, an eloquent Jew of Alexan- 
dria, and well acquainted with the law, 
and writings of the prophets. This man 
coming to Ephesus, though he was only 
instructed in the rudiments of Christianity, 
and John's baptism, yet taught with great 
courage, and a most powerful zeal. After 
being fully instructed in the faith by 
Aquila and Priscilla, he passed over into 



Achaia, being furnished with recommenda- 
tory letters by the churches of Ephesus and 
Corinth. He was of the greatest service 
in Achaia, in watering what Paul had plant- 
ed, confirming the disciples, and powerful- 
ly convincing the Jews that Jesus was the 
true Messiah promised in the scriptures. 

While Apollos was thus employed, St. 
Paul returned to Ephesus, where he fixed 
his abode for three years, bringing with 
him Gaius of Derbe, Aristarchus a native 
of Thessalonica, Timotheus and Erastus of 
Corinth, and Titus. The first thing he did 
after his arrival, was to examine certain 
disciples, whether they had received the Holy 
Ghost since they believed? To which they 
answered, "That the doctrine they had 
received promised nothing of that nature, 
nor had they ever heard that such an extra- 
ordinary spirit had of late been bestowed 
upon the church." 

This answer surprised the apostle, who 
asked them in what name they had been 
baptized ; since in the Christian form the 
name of the Holy Ghost was always ex- 
pressed ? They replied, that they had only 
received John's baptism. Upon which 
the apostle informed them, that though 
John's baptism commanded nothing but 
repentance, yet it tacitly implied the whole 
doctrine of Christ and the Holy Ghost. 
When they heard this, they were baptized 
according to the form prescribed by Christ 
himself, that is, in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; 
and after the apostle had prayed, and laid 
his hands over them, they received the gift 
of tongues, and other miraculous powers. 

After this, he entered into the Jewish sy- 
nagogues, where for the first three months 
he contended and disputed with the Jews, 
endeavouring with great earnestness and 
resolution to convince them of the truth of 
the Christian religion. But when, instead 

of 



344 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



of success, he met with nothing but obsti- 
nacy and infidelity, he left the synagogue, 
and taking those with him whom he had 
instrumentally converted, instructed them, 
and others who resorted to him, in the 
school of one Tyrannus, a place where 
scholars used to be instructed. In this 
manner he continued to preach the gospel 
two whole years ; by which means the 
Jews and proselytes had an opportunity of 
hearing the glad tidings of salvation : and 
because miracles are the clearest evidence 
of a divine commission, the Almighty was 
pleased to testify the doctrine which St. 
Paul delivered, by amazing and miraculous 
operations, many of which were of a pecu- 
liar and extraordinary nature ; for he not 
only healed those that came to him, but if 
napkins or handkerchiefs were only touch- 
ed by him, and applied to the sick, their 
diseases immediately vanished, and the 
evil spirits departed out of those that were 
possessed by them. 

About this time the apostle wrote his 
Epistle to the Galatians; for he had heard 
that, since his departure, corrupt opinions 
had crept in among them with regard to 
the necessity of observing the legal rites; 
and that several impostors had found ad- 
mittance into the church, who knew no 
better method of undermining the doc- 
trine he had planted there, than by vilify- 
ing his person, slighting him as an apostle 
only at second-hand, not to be compared 
with Peter, James, and John, who had fa- 
miliarly conversed with Christ in the days 
of his flesh, and being immediately deputed 
by him. In this Epistle, therefore, he re- 
proves them with some necessary severity, 
for their being so soon led out of the right 
way wherein he had placed them, and so 
easily suffering themselves to be imposed 
upon by the crafty artifices of seducers. 
He vindicates the honour of his apostle- 



ship, and the immediate receiving his com- 
mission from Christ, wherein he shews that 
he was not inferior to the very best of the 
apostles. He largely refutes those Judaical 
opinions that had tainted and infected 
them : and, in the conclusion, instructs 
them in the rules and duties of a holy life. 

During St. Paul's stay at Ephesus, an 
accident happened, which was attended 
with great trouble and danger. In this city 
was the celebrated temple of Diana, a struc- 
ture so magnificent for beauty, riches, and 
magnitude, that it was reckoned one of the 
seven wonders of the world. But what 
increased its fame and reputation, was an 
image of Diana kept there, which the ido- 
latrous priests persuaded the people was 
made by Jupiter himself, and dropped 
down from heaven ; for which reason it 
was held in great veneration, not only at 
Ephesus, but throughout all Asia. So that 
people procured silver shrines, or figures of 
this temple, of such a size as to carry in 
their pockets, either for curiosity, or to stir 
up their devotion. This proved the source 
of a great deal of business to the silver- 
smiths of Ephesus ; of whom one Deme- 
trius was the chief. This man plainly per- 
ceiving that Christianity tended to the sub- 
version of idolatry, and consequently to 
the ruin of their gainful employment, 
called all the artists together, and patheti- 
cally represented to them, how inevitably 
they must be reduced to a state of poverty, 
if they suffered Paul to bring their temple 
and goddess into contempt ; by persuading 
the people, as he did, that they were no 
gods which were made with hands. 

This speech of Demetrius fired them 
with a zeal which they could no longer 
contain ; so that they cried out, as with one 
voice, Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! 
They should indeed have considered, that 
if their ooddess was able to defend herself 

against 



THE LIVES OF 

against the doctrines preached by Paul, 
neither she nor the temple were in any 
danger: whereas, if Paul was able to de- 
stroy their gods, it was in vain for them to 
resist him. But interest and superstition, 
combining in the minds of a bigoted mul- 
titude, admitted of no reason. They were 
all fired with zeal for their goddess, and 
determined, if they could find Paul, to 
expose him to the beasts in the theatre; 
for it was customary in those days, at the 
celebration of their public games and festi- 
vals, to expose slaves to the rage of wild 
beasts, for the diversion of the spectators. 
The whole city w T as filled with the tumult ; 
and the crowd missing Paul, laid hold on 
Gaius and Aristarchus, two Macedonians 
of Paul's company, and hurried them into 
the theatre, with a design to throw them to 
the wild beasts. Paul, who w r as at present 
in a place of security, hearing of the dan- 
ger to which his brethren were exposed, 
was very desirous of venturing after them, 
in order to speak in their behalf ; but he 
was at last dissuaded from it, not only by 
the Christians, but also by the Gentile go- 
vernors of the theatrical games, who were 
his friends, and who assured him that he 
would only endanger himself, without res- 
cuing his companions. 

The noise and confusion of the multi- 
tude was now prodigious, most of them not 
knowing the reason for which they were 
come together ; and therefore some said 
one thing, and some another. In this dis- 
traction, Alexander, a Jewish convert, was 
singled out by the multitude, and, by the 
instigation of the Jews, was going to make 
his defence ; in which, doubtless, he would 
have laid the whole blame upon Paul ; 
but the multitude perceiving him to be a 
Jew, and therefore suspecting he w r as one 
of Paul's associates, raised another outcry, 
for near two hours together, wherein no- 



THE APOSTLES. 345 

thing could be heard but, Great is Diana of 
the Ephesians! This confusion brought 
the town-clerk, who kept the register of 
the games, into the theatre, to suppress, if 
possible, so uncommon a tumult. And 
having with great difficulty obtained si- 
lence, he calmly and discreetly told them, 
" That the world was sufficiently acquaint- 
ed with the devotion paid by the Ephe- 
sians to the great goddess Diana, and the 
image which, according to report, fell 
down from Jupiter ; and therefore it was 
absolutely needless for them to publish it 
at that time: That if Demetrius and his 
fraternity had any thing to allege against 
Paul and his companions, the courts were 
open, and they might bring their accusa- 
tion against them ; or, if they were ques- 
tioned with regard to the breach of any of 
their laws, the cause ought to be heard in a 
regular assembly : That they would do 
well to consider this, and be quiet ; having 
already rendered themselves obnoxious to 
the displeasure of the magistrates, if they 
should think proper to call them to an ac- 
count for that day's tumult." 

This discourse had the desired effect ; 
the multitude were convinced that they 
had acted very improperly, and therefore 
repaired to their respective habitations ; 
and Gaius, Aristarchus, and Alexander, 
were released without any great hurt. But 
the escape of Paul was so remarkable, that 
he mentions it as a miraculous deliverance.. 
— We had, says he, the sentence of death in 
ourselves, that we should not trust in our- 
selves, but in God, who raised the dead, who 
delivered us from so great a death. And in 
another place he tells us, he fought with 
beasts at Ephesus ; alluding either to the de- 
sign of the enraged multitude, of throwing 
him to the wild beasts in the theatre, though 
their intention was not executed, or to the 
manners of the people, who sufficiently 

4 S deserved 



346 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



deserved the character of being savage and 
brutal in the highest degree. 

About this time Paul was informed of 
some disturbances in the church at Co- 
rinth, hatched and fomented by a com- 
pany of false teachers, crept in among them, 
who endeavoured to draw them into par- 
ties and factions, by persuading one com- 
pany to be for Peter, another for Paul, and 
a third for Apollos ; as if the principal part 
of religion consisted in being of this or that 
denomination, or in a warm active zeal to 
depreciate or oppose whoever was not of 
the same sect. 

It is a very weak and slender claim, 
when a man holds his religion by no bet- 
ter title than his having joined himself to 
such or such a sect or congregation, and is 
remarkably zealous to promote it, to be 
childishly and passionately clamorous for 
some person's particular mode of adminis- 
tration, or some particular opinion ; as if 
religion rather consisted in disputes, or in 
separating from our brethren, than in righ- 
teousness, peace, and joy in the Hob) Ghost. 

By these means, schisms and factions 
broke into the Corinthian church ; where- 
by many wild and extravagant opinions, 
some of them such as tended to undermine 
the essential doctrines of Christianity, were 
planted, and had taken root. To cure 
these dissensions, St. Paul wrote his first 
epistle to the Corinthians ; wherein he 
smartly reproves them for their schisms 
and parties, conjures them to peace and 
unity, corrects those gross corruptions that 
had been introduced among them, and 
particularly resolves those many cases and 
controversies, wherein they had requested 
his advice and counsel. Soon after, Apol- 
los determining to go to Crete, together 
with Zenos, St. Paul sent by them his epis- 
tle to Titus, whom he had made bishop of 
that island, and had left there for propa- 



gating the gospel. In this epistle he in- 
structs him fully in the execution of his 
office, both with regard to himself and 
others. 

CHAP. V. 

Transactions of St. Paul, during the farther 
Progress of his Ministry, to the Time of 
his Arraignment before Felix. 

OON after the tumult at Ephesus, St. 
Paul called the Christians together, and 
took his leave of them with the most tender 
expressions of love and affection. He had 
now spent almost three years at Ephesus, 
and founded there a very considerable 
church, of which he had ordained Timothy 
the first bishop. He first travelled about 
two hundred miles northward, to Troas, be- 
fore he took ship, expecting to meet Titus 
there. But missing him, he proceeded on 
his voyage to Macedonia. 

On his arrival there, he preached the 
gospel in several places, even as far as Illy- 
ricum, now called Sclavonia. During this 
journey, he met with many troubles and 
dangers ; without were fightings, within were 
fears; but God, who comforteth those that 
are cast down, revived his spirits by the 
arrival of Titus, who gave him a pleasing- 
account of the good effect his epistle had 
produced at Corinth. This worthy bishop 
came thither with large contributions from 
the church at Corinth ; and from the ex- 
ample of those liberal Christians, St. Paul 
stirred up the Macedonians to imitate their 
charity, intending to assist the poor Chris- 
tians at Jerusalem. 

During the stay of Titus in Macedonia, 
Paul wrote his second epistle to the Corin- 
thians, and sent it to them by Titus and 
Luke. In this epistle he endeavours to 
rectify what his former epistle had not 

effected ; 




THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



347 



effected ; to vindicate his apostleship from 
that contempt and scorn, and himself from 
those slanders and aspersions, which the 
seducers, who found themselves lashed by 
his former letter, had cast upon him ; to- 
gether with several other particular cases 
relative to the church. 

About this time also he wrote his first 
epistle to Timothy, whom he had left at 
Ephesus ; wherein he gives him directions 
how to conduct himself in the discharge of 
that great office and authority in the church 
committed to his care ; and instructs him 
in the particular qualifications of those he 
should make choice of as bishops and mi- 
nisters in the church. He likewise gives 
him instructions with regard to his giving 
orders to deaconnesses, and instructing ser- 
vants; warning him at the same time against 
that pestilent generation of heretics and se- 
ducers that would arise in the church. 

During his stay in Greece, he went to 
Corinth, where he wrote his famous epistle 
to the Romans, which he sent by Phebe, 
a deaconness of the church of Cenchrea, 
near Corinth. His principal intention in 
this epistle is, fully to state and determine 
the great controversy between the Jews 
and Gentiles, with regard to the obliga- 
tions of the rites and ceremonies of the 
Jewish law, and those principal and mate- 
rial points of doctrine depending upon it, 
namely, Christian libertj^, the use of in- 
different things, and the like. And, which 
is the chief intention of all religion, in- 
structs them, and presses them to perform 
the duties of a holy and pious life, such as 
the Christian doctrine naturally recom- 
mends. 

St. Paul beino- now determined to re- 
turn to Syria, in order to convey the 
contributions to the brethren at Jerusalem, 
set out on his journey ; but being informed 
that the Jews had formed a design of kill- 



ing and robbing him by the way, he re- 
turned back into Macedonia, and came to 
Philippi, from whence he went to Troas, 
where he stayed seven days. Here he 
preached to them on the Lord's day, and 
continued his discourse till midnight, be- 
ing himself to depart in the morning. The 
length of his discourse, and the time of the 
night, caused some of his audience to be 
overtaken with sleep, and among them a 
young man named Eutychus, who fell from 
the third story, and was taken up dead ; 
but the apostle, by his prayers to the throne 
of grace, presently restored him to life and 
health. 

How indefatigable was the industry of 
this great apostle ! How closely did he 
tread in the steps of his great Master, who 
went about doing good! He preached, and 
wrought miracles, wherever he came. As 
a master builder, he either laid a founda- 
tion, or raised the superstructure. He was 
instant in season, and out of season, and 
spared no pains to assist the souls of men. 

The night being thus spent in holy 
exercises, St. Paul took his leave of the 
brethren in the morning, travelling on foot 
to Assos, a sea-port town, whither he had 
before sent his companions by sea. From 
thence they sailed to Mytilene, a city in 
the isle of Lesbos. The next day they 
sailed from thence, and came over-against 
Chios, and the day following landed at 
Trogy Ilium, a promontory of Ionia, near 
Samos. The next day they came to Mi- 
letus, not putting in at Ephesus, because 
the apostle was resolved, if possible, to be 
at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. 

On his arrival at Miletus, he sent to 
Ephesus, to summon the elders of the 
church ; and, on their coming, reminded 
them of the manner in which he had con- 
versed among them ; how faithfully and 
affectionately he had discharged the offices 

of 



348 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



of his ministry, and how incessantly he 
had laboured for the good of the souls of 
men ; adding, that he had never failed to 
acquaint them, both in public and private, 
with whatever might be useful and profit- 
able to them; uroino- both the Jews and 
Gentiles to repentance and reformation of 
life, and a hearty perseverance in the faith 
of Christ; that he was now going up to 
Jerusalem, where he was ignorant of what 
might befall him, except what had been 
foretold him by those who were endued 
with the prophetical gifts of the Holy 
Ghost ; namely, that afflictions and impri- 
sonment would attend him. But that this 
gave him no concern, being willing to lay 
down his life whenever the gospel required 
it, and fully determined to serve faithfully 
his great Lord and Master : "I well know/' 
said he, " that you will see my face no 
more ; but, for my encouragement and sa- 
tisfaction, ye yourselves can bear me wit- 
ness, that I have not, by concealing any 
part of the Christian doctrine, betrayed 
your souls. And as for yourselves, whom 
God hath made bishops and pastors of his 
church, you should be careful to feed, 
guide, and direct, those Christians under 
your inspection, and be infinitely tender of 
the welfare of souls, for whose redemption 
the blessed Jesus laid down his own life. 
All the care, therefore, possible for you to 
use, is no more than necessary; for, after 
my departure, false teachers will appear in 
the church, to the great danger of the souls 
n° men, seeking, by every crafty method 
ind pernicious doctrine, to gain proselytes 
o their party, and by that means fill the 
:hurch of Christ with schisms and factions. 
tVatch ye, therefore, and remember with 
vhat tears and sorrow I have, during three 
'ears, warned you of these things. And 
low I recommend you to the Divine fa- 
r our and protection, and to the rules and 



instructions of the gospel, which, if ad- 
hered to, will undoubtedly dispose and per- 
fect you for that state of happiness which 
the Almighty hath prepared for good men 
in the mansions of eternity. You well 
know that I have, from the beginning, 
dealt faithfully and uprightly with you ; 
that I have no covetous designs, or ever 
desired the riches of other men ; nay, I 
have laboured with mine own hands, to 
support myself and my companions ; you 
ought, therefore, to support the weak, and 
relieve the poor, rather than be yourselves 
chargeable to others, according to that in- 
comparable saying of the great Redeemer 
of mankind. It is more blessed to give than 
to receive." — If we minutely attend to the 
whole of this apostle's preaching and writ- 
ing, we shall find that he ever strenuously 
inculcates not only points of faith, but also 
practical duties, without which our faith 
is vain. 

St. Paul having finished his discourse, 
he kneeled down, and joined with them in 
prayer ; and they all melted into tears, 
and, with the greatest expressions of sor- 
row, attended him to the ship ; grieving in 
the most passionate manner for what he 
had told them, that they should see his face 
no more. 

Paul, with his companions, now de- 
parted from Miletus, and arrived at Coos, 
from whence they sailed the next day to 
Rhodes, a large island in the iEoean sea. 
Leaving this place, they came to Patara, 
the metropolis of Lycia, where they went 
on board another vessel bound for Tyre, in 
Phenicia. On his arrival, he visited the 
brethren there, and continued with them a 
week, and was advised by some of them 
who had the gift of prophecy, not to go up 
to Jerusalem. But the apostle would by 
no means abandon his design, or refuse to 
suffer any thing, provided he might spread 

the 



THE LIVES OF 

the gospel of his Saviour. Finding all per- 
suasions were in vain, they jointly accom- 
panied him to the shore, where he kneeled 
down and prayed with them; and, after 
embracing them with the utmost affection, 
he went on board, and came to Ptolemais, 
and the next day to Cesarea. 

During their stay in this place, Agabns, 
a Christian prophet, came thither from Ju- 
dea, who, taking Paul's girdle, bound his 
own hands and feet with it, signifying, by 
this symbol, that the Jews would bind 
Paul in that manner, and deliver him over 
to the Gentiles. Whereupon both his own 
companions and the Christians of Cesarea 
earnestly besought him that he would not 
go up to Jerusalem. But the apostle 
asked them, if they intended by these pas- 
sionate dissuasives to add more affliction to 
his sorrow? " For I am ready," continued 
he, " not only to be bound, but also to die 
at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord 
Jesus." 

When the disciples found that his reso- 
lution was not to be shaken, they impor- 
tuned him no farther, leaving the event to 
be determined according to the pleasure of 
the Most High. And all things being 
read} r , Paul and his companions set for- 
ward on their journey, and were kindly 
and joyfully received by the Christians, on 
their arrival at Jerusalem. 

The day after their arrival, Paul and his 
companions went to the house of St. James 
the apostle, where the rest of the bishops 
and governors of the church were met 
together. After mutual salutations, the 
apostle gave them a particular account of 
the success with which God had blessed his 
endeavours in propagating Christianity 
among the Gentiles ; for which they all 
joined in thanksgiving to God : but withal 
told him, that he was now come to a place 
where there were many thousands of Jew- 



THE APOSTLES. 349 

ish converts, who were all zealous for the 
law of Moses, and who had been informed 
that he taught the Jews, whom he had in- 
strumentally converted, to renounce cir- 
cumcision and the ceremonies of the law. 
That as soon as the multitude heard of his 
arrival, they would all assemble, to see how 
he behaved himself in this matter : and, 
therefore, to prevent a disturbance, thought 
it advisable for him to join himself with 
four persons, who were at that time to ac- 
complish a vow, and perform the usual 
rites and ceremonies with them, and pro- 
vide such sacrifices for them as the law in 
that case required. St. Paul, who in such 
case was willing to become all things to oil 
men, that he might gaiti the more, consented 
unto their counsel ; and taking the persons 
with him to the temple, told the priests 
that the time of a vow they had made be- 
ing now expired, and having purified them- 
selves according as the nature of their 
case required, they were come to make the 
offerings required by the law. 

The seven days in which those sacrifices 
were to be offered being now almost ended, 
certain Jews from Asia, finding him in the 
temple, began to raise a tumult ; and lay- 
ing hold of Paul, called to their brethren 
the Jews to assist them, declaring that this 
was the person who every where preached 
doctrines derogatory to the Jewish nation, 
and destructive to the institutions of the 
law. This accusation, though absolutely 
false, set the whole city in an uproar; and 
seizing on the apostle, they dragged him 
out of the temple, when the doors were 
immediately shut, to prevent his returning 
into that holy place. 

As they were proceeding in this man- 
ner, Paul asked the governor, whether he 
might have the liberty of speaking to him : 
who finding he understood the Greek lan- 
guage, inquired of him whether he was not 

4 T the 



350 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES 



the Egyptian, who, a few years before, had 
raised a sedition in Juclea, and headed a 
party of four thousand vile and profligate 
wretches ? To which the apostle replied, 
that he was a Jew of Tarsus, a freeman of 
a rich and honourable city ; and therefore 
begged of him that he might have leave to 
speak to the people. This being readily 
granted, Paul addressed them in the He- 
brew language as follows : 

" Listen, ye descendants of Jacob, to a 
person of your own religion, and, like your- 
selves, a child of Abraham ; born in Tar- 
sus, and brought up in this city, at the 
feet of Gamaliel, and fully instructed in 
the law delivered by Moses to our forefa- 
thers, and formerly as zealous for the tem- 
ple-worship as ye are at present. 

" Nay, I persecuted unto death all who 
believed in Jesus, seizing on all I could 
find, both men and women, and casting 
them into prison. 

* " But as I was pursuing my journey, to 
execute this commission, and was arrived 
near Damascus, there appeared, about 
mid-day, a light from heaven, shining round 
about me. 

"Terrified at so awful an appearance, 1 
fell to the ground, and heard a voice say- 
ing unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
thou me? To which I answered, Who 
art thou, Lord? And the voice replied, I 
am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou perse- 
cutest. 

"After recovering from the terror with 
which my mind was filled, I answered, 
What shall I do, Lord ? And he replied, 
Arise, and go into Damascus, and there it 
shall be told thee of all things zcliicli are ap- 
pointed for thee to do. 

" The brilliancy of the glory deprived 
me of my sight ; so that my companions 
led me by the hand to Damascus, where 
one Ananias, a person well respected by 



all the Jews of that city, visited me, and 
said, Brother Saul, receive thy sight ; and in 
a moment my eyes were opened, and 1 saw - 
him standing before me. 

" When he saw that my sight was re- 
stored, he said unto me, The Almighty 
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, hath 
appointed thee to know his will, to see the 
great Messiah, the Holy One of God, and 
hear the voice of his mouth ; for thou art 
chosen to be a witness to all the nations of 
the earth, of those surprising things thou 
hast seen and heard. Why, therefore, tar- 
riest thou here any longer ? Arise and be 
baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on 
the name of the Lord. 

" After this glorious vision, and miracu- 
lous power of the Most High, when I was 
returned from Damascus to Jerusalem, and 
offering up my prayers in the temple, I 
fell into a trance, and again saw the great 
Son of David, who said unto me, Depart 
quickly from Jerusalem ; for the sons of 
Jacob will refuse to believe thy testimony 
concerning me. And I anwered, Lord, 
they know how cruelly I used thy saints 
and followers ; that I imprisoned and beat 
them in every city and in every syna- 
gogue. Nay, when they shed the blood 
of thy hofy martyr Stephen, I was also 
one of the spectators ; I consented to his 
death ; I even kept the raiment of those 
that slew him. 

"But he replied, Depart ; I will send 
thee to countries far remote, even to the 
Gentiles/' 

The Jews had, till now, listened with 
some attention to his speech ; but on his 
mentioning the commission he had received 
to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, their 
fury knew r no bounds ; crying out with one 
voice, Away with such a fellow from the 
earth ! 

But the captain of the guard commanded 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



351 



him to be brought within the castle, and 
that he should be examined and scourged 
till he confessed the reason of the uncom- 
mon rage shewn against him by the peo- 
ple. Accordingly, the lictor bound him, 
and was going to put the orders he had re- 
ceived into execution ; when Paul asked 
the centurion who stood by, whether it 
was lawful to scourge a citizen of Rome, 
before any sentence had been passed upon 
him? The centurion, instead of answer- 
ing the question, repaired immediately to 
the governor, and desired him to take care 
how he proceeded against the prisoner, 
because he was a Roman. On this infor- 
mation, the governor came into the prison, 
and asked Paul whether he was really a 
free citizen of Rome ? and being told he 
was, he answered, that himself procured 
that great privilege by a large sum of mo- 
ney ; but Paul answered, I was free born. 
On receiving this account, the governor 
commanded the centurion not to scourge 
him, being terrified at what he had already 
done, namely, his chaining a free denizen 
of Rome. 

The next day he ordered his chains to 
be taken off; and, that he might tho- 
roughly satisfy himself of the cause of so 
unusual a tumult on the preceding day, 
summoned the Sanhedrim to meet, and 
brought down Paul before them. 

The apostle being thus placed before 
the great council of the Jews, told them, 
that in all the passages of his life he had 
taken care to govern his actions by the se- 
verest rules of duty and conscience : Men 
and brethren, said he, I have lived in all good 
conscience before God until this day. 

But however this expression of St. Paul 
might tend to shew the true state of his 
mind, the high-priest Ananias was so of- 
fended at it, that he commanded those 
who stood next him to strike him in the 



face ; at which the apostle smartly replied, 

God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. On. 
which, some of the spectators replied, " It 
is not lawful to revile the high-priest of the 
Almighty." Paul answered, " I did not 
know that Ananias was appointed by God 
to be an high-priest : but as he is invested 
with authority, it is unjust to revile him ; 
God himself having commanded that no 
man shall speak evil of the rulers of the 
people. Paul perceiving that the council 
consisted partly of Sadducees, and partly 
of Pharisees, cried aloud, " Men and bre- 
thren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, 
and am now brought before your tribunal 
for asserting the resurrection of the dead." 

This declaration threw the whole court 
into confusion, by exciting the regard of 
the Pharisees, who favoured the doctrine 
of the resurrection, and incurring the re- 
sentment of the Sadducees, who strenu- 
ously opposed it. 

The dissensions of these sects increased 
to that degree, that the captain feared 
Paul would have been pulled to pieces ; 
and therefore took him from the bar, and 
carried him back to the castle. But, dur- 
ing the silence of the night, he was com- 
forted by extraordinary communications 
of the Divine Spirit, encouraging him to 
constancy and resolution, and assuring him 
that he should, notwithstanding all the ma- 
lice and wicked designs of his enemies, live 
to bear testimony even in Rome itself. 

The next morning the Jews, whose envy 
and malice were increased by these dila- 
tory proceedings, determined to use a 
quicker method of putting a period to his 
life. In order to this, about forty of the 
most turbulent entered into a shocking 
confederacy of killing him ; ratifying it 
by oaths and the most bitter execrations, 
that they would neither eat nor drink till 
they had put their inhuman design into 

execution. 



352 THE LIVES OF 

execution Accordingly this design, tho' 
probably concluded under the mantle of 
the night, was discovered to St. Paul by his 
sister's son, and, at the request of the apos- 
tle, told to the governor himself ; who im- 
mediately commanded two parties of horse 
and foot to be ready by nine o'clock that 
night, in order to conduct St. Paul to Fe- 
lix, the Roman governor of that province ; 
to whom also he sent an account of the 
whole proceedings of the Jews against the 
prisoner, and at the same time ordered his 
accusers also to appear before the Roman 
magistrate. Accordingly, St. Paul was con- 
ducted to Antipatris, and afterwards to Ce- 
sarea, where the letters being delivered to 
Felix, the apostle was also presented to 
him ; and finding that he belonged to the 
province of Cilicia, he told him, that as 
soon as his accusers were come down, he 
would determine the affair ; and in the mean 
time commanded him to be secured in the 
place called Herod's Hall. 

CHAP. VI. 

The Transactions of St. Paul, from the first 
Trial before Felix, till his coming to Home. 

UR aposlle, soon after his arrival, en- 
countered Tertullus, who, in a short 
but eloquent speech, began to accuse him, 
charging him with sedition, heresy, and 
the profanation of the temple. 

The orator having finished his charge 
against the apostle, Felix told St. Paul that 
he was now at liberty to make his defence; 
which he did in the following manner : 

" I answer this charge of the Jews with 
the greater satisfaction before thee, because 
thou hast for many years been a judge of 
this nation. About twelve days since I 
repaired to Jerusalem, to worship the God 
of Jacob. But I neither disputed with 



THE APOSTLES. 

any man, nor endeavoured to stir up the 
people in the synagogues or the city. Nor 
can they prove the charge they have 
brought against me. 

"This, however, I readily confess, that 
after the way which they call heresy, so wor- 
ship I the God of my fathers : and accord- 
ing to this faith I am careful to maintain 
a clear and quiet conscience, both toward* 
God and man. 

"After I had spent some years in dis- 
tant countries, I repaired to Jerusalem, 
with the alms I had collected in other pro- 
vinces for the poor of mine own nation, 
and offerings to the God of Jacob. And 
while I was performing the duties of reli- 
gion, certain Asiatic Jews found me in the 
temple, purified according to law ; but 
neither attended with a multitude of fol- 
lowers, nor the least tumultuous assembly. 
It was therefore necessary that the Jews 
should have been here, if they had any 
thing to allege against me. Nay, I ap- 
peal to those of the Sanhedrim here pre- 
sent, if any thing has been laid to my 
charge, except the objections of the Sad- 
cucees, who violently opposed me for as- 
serting the doctrine of the resurrection.'' 

Felix having thus heard both parties, re- 
fused to pass any final sentence, till he 
had more fully advised about it, and con- 
sulted Lysias, the governor of the castle, 
who was the most proper person to give 
an account of the sedition and tumult ; 
commanding, in the mean time, that St. 
Paul should be kept under a guard, but 
that he should enjoy the liberty of being 
visited by his friends, and receiving from 
them any office of friendship. 

Soon after this, Felix's wife, Drusilla, 
a Jewess, and daughter to the elder Herod, 
came down to him at Cesarea ; in whose 
presence the governor sent for Paul, and 
gave him leave to explain the doctrines of 

Christianity. 




THE LIVES OF 

Christianity. In this discourse the apostle ' 
took occasion to insist upon the most im- 
portant points both of faith and practice, 
particularly the influence which a future 
judgment should have upon the whole te- 
nor of his life and conduct. 

This discourse was wisely adapted to the 
state and temper of Felix ; though when 
St. Paul pathetically described the terrors 
of the last judgment, Felix trembled on 
his throne, and was so greatly affected, 
that he caused the apostle to break off 
abruptly, telling him that he would hear 
the remainder of his discourse at a more 
convenient season. 

Felix, no doubt, had sufficient reason to 
tremble, and his conscience to be sensi- 
bly alarmed at these reflections ; for he 
was a man notoriously infamous for rapine 
and violence. Tacitus tells us, that he 
made his will the law of his government, 
practising all manner of cruelty and in- 
justice. To these qualities he added bribery 
and covetousness; and therefore often sent 
for our apostle to discourse with him, ex- 
pecting he would have given him a con- 
siderable sum for his release ; having, in 
all probability, heard that St. Paul had 
brought a large quantity of money to Je- 
rusalem. 

But finding no offers were made him, 
either by the apostle himself or his friends, 
he kept him prisoner two years ; when he 
himself being discharged from his office by 
Nero, he left Paul in prison, in order to 
gratify the malice of the Jews, and engage 
them to speak the better of his government, 
after his departure from Judea. 

Felix was succeeded in the government 
of the province by Porcius Festus, before 
whom, at his first coming to Jerusalem, the 
high-priest and Sanhedrim preferred an 
indictment against Paul, desiring that he 
might be sent for up to Jerusalem, in order 



rHE APOSTLES. 353 

to take his trial ; intending to assassinate 
him by the way. But Festus told them, 
that he was shortly going himself to Cesa- 
rea, and that if they had any complaint 
against Paul, they should come down thi- 
ther and accuse him. 

Accordingly, as soon as he was come to 
Cesarea, he ascended the tribunal, where 
the Jews renewed the charge they had be- 
fore brought against Paul ; but the apostle 
soon cleared himself of every part of the 
charge, they not being able to prove any 
thing against him. Festus, however, being 
willing to procure the favour of the Jews 
at his entrance on the government, asked 
Paul, whether he would go up and be tried 
before him at Jerusalem? But the apostle, 
well knowing the consequences of such a 
proposal, answered, as a Roman, I appeal 
anto Cesar. 

This method of appealing was common 
among the Romans, and introduced to 
defend and secure the lives and fortunes of 
the people from the unjust encroachments 
and rigorous severities of the magistrates, 
whereby it was lawful, in cases of oppres- 
sion, to appeal to the people for redress ; 
a thing more than once settled by the sanc- 
tion of the Valerian law. 

Some time after St. Paul had appealed 
unto Cesar, king Agrippa, who succeeded 
Herod in the tetrarchate of Galilee, and 
his sister Bernice, came to Cesarea to 
visit the new governor. Festus embraced 
this opportunity of mentioning the case of 
our apostle to king Agrippa, together with 
the remarkable tumult this affair had oc- 
casioned among the Jews, and the appeal 
he had made to Cesar. This account ex.- 
cited the curiosity of king Agrippa, and 
he was desirous of hearing himself what 
St. Paul had to say in his own vindi- 
cation. 

Accordingly, the next day, the king 
4 U and 



354 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



and his sister, accompanied with Eestus 
the governor, and several other persons of 
distinction, came into the court, with a 
pompous and splendid retinue, where the 
prisoner was brought before them. On 
his appearing, Festus informed the court 
how greatly he had been importuned by 
the Jews, both at Cesarea and Jerusalem, 
to put the prisoner to death as a malefactor ; 
but having, on examination, found him 
guilty of no capital crime, and the prisoner 
himself having appealed unto Cesar, he was 
determined to send him to Rome ; but was 
willing to have his cause debated before 
Agrippa, that he might be furnished with 
some material particulars to send with him ; 
it being absurd to send a prisoner, without 
signifying the crimes alleged against him. 

Festus having finished his speech, Agrip- 
pa told Paul, he was now at liberty to 
make his own defence ; and silence being 
made, he delivered himself in the following 
manner, addressing his speech particularly 
to Agrippa: 

" 1 consider it as a peculiar happiness, 
king Agrippa, that I am to make my defence 
against the accusations of the Jews, before 
thee ; because thou art well acquainted 
with all their customs, and the questions 
commonly debated among them ; I there- 
fore beseech thee to hear me patiently. 
All the Jews are well acquainted with my 
manner of life, from my youth, the great- 
est part of it having been spent with my 
own countrymen at Jerusalem. They also 
know that I was educated under the insti- 
tutions of the Pharisees, the strictest sect of 
our religion, and am now arraigned for a 
tenet believed by all their fathers; a tenet 
sufficiently credible in itself, and plainly 
revealed in the scriptures ; I mean, the re- 
surrection of the dead. Why should any 
mortal think it either incredible or impos- 
sible, that God should raise the dead ? 



" I, indeed, formei'ty thought myself 
indispensably obliged to oppose the reli- 
gion of Jesus of Nazareth. Nor was J 
satisfied with imprisoning and punishing, 
with death itself, the saints I found at Je- 
rusalem ; I even persecuted them in strange 
cities, whither my implacable zeal pursued 
them, having procured authority for that 
purpose from the chief priests and the 
elders. 

" Accordingly, I departed for Damascus 
with a commission from the Sanhedrim ; 
but as I was travelling towards that city, 
I saw at mid-clay, O king, a light from 
heaven, far exceeding the brightness of the 
sun, encompassing me and my compa- 
nions. On seeing this awful appearance, 
we all fell to the earth; and I heard a 
voice, which said to me, in the Hebrew 
language, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou 
me ? It is hard for thee to kick against the 
pricks. To which I answered, Who art thou, 
Lord? And he replied, I am Jesus, whom 
thou persecutest. But be not terrified, arise 
from the earth ; for I have appeared unto 
thee, that thou mightest be both a witness 
of the things thou hast seen, and also of 
others which I will hereafter reveal unto 
thee. My power shall deliver thee from 
the Jews and Gentiles, to whom now I 
send thee to preach the gospel ; to with- 
draw the vail of darkness and ignorance, 
to turn them from falsehood unto truth, and 
from the power of Satan unto God. 

" Accordingly, king Agrippa, I readily 
obeyed the heavenly vision : I preached 
the gospel first to the inhabitants of Damas- 
cus, then to those of Jerusalem and Judea, 
and afterwards to the Gentiles ; persuading 
them to forsake their iniquities, and, by 
sincere repentance, turn to the living God. 

" These endeavours to save the souls of 
sinful mortals exasperated the Jews, who 
caught me in the temple, and entered into 

a con- 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



355 



a conspiracy to destroy me. But, by the 
help of Almighty God, I still remain a 
witness to all the human race, preaching- 
nothing but what Moses and all the pro- 
phets foretold, namely, that the Messiah 
should suffer, be the first that should rise 
from the chambers of the grave, and pub- 
lish the glad tidings of salvation both to the 
Jews and Gentiles/' 

While the apostle thus pleaded for him- 
self, Festus cried out, " Paul, thou art 
mad ; too much study hath deprived thee 
of thy reason." But Paul answered, " I 
am far, most noble Festus, from being 
transported with idle and distracted ideas ; 
the words I speak are dictated by truth 
and sobriety : and I am persuaded that 
king Agrippa himself is not ignorant of 
these things ; for they were transacted 
openly before the world. I am confident, 
king Agrippa, that thou believest the pro- 
phets ; and therefore must know that all 
their predictions were fulfilled in Christ." 
To which Agrippa answered, " Thou hast 
almost persuaded me to embrace the Chris- 
tian faith." Paul replied, " I sincerely wish 
that not only thou, but also all that hear me, 
were not almost, but altogether the same 
as I myself, except being prisoners." 

It being now finally determined that 
Paul should be sent to Rome, he was, with 
several other prisoners of consequence, 
committed to the care of Julius, comman- 
der of a company belonging to the legion 
of Augustus ; and was accompanied in 
his voyage by St. Luke, Aristarchus, Tro- 
phimus, and some others, not mentioned 
by the sacred historian. 

In the month of September they em- 
barked on board a ship at Adramyttium, 
and sailed to Sidon, where the centurion 
courteously gave the apostle leave to go 
on shore, to visit his friends and refresh 
hiniseif. 



After a short stay they sailed for Cy- 
prus, and arrived opposite the Fair-Havens, 
a place near Myra, a city of Lycia. Here 
the season being far advanced, and Paul 
foreseeing it would be a dangerous voyage, 
persuaded him to put in and winter there. 
But the Roman centurion preferring the 
opinion of the master of the ship, and the 
harbour being at the same time incom- 
modious, resolved, if possible, to reach 
Phenice, a port of Crete, and winter there. 
But they soon found themselves disap- 
pointed ; for the fine southerly gale, which 
had favoured them for some time, suddenly 
changed into a stormy and tempestuous 
wind at north-east ; which blew with such 
violence, that the ship was obliged to sail 
before it ; and, to prevent her sinking, 
they threw overboard the principal part of 
her lading. 

In this desperate and uncomfortable con- 
dition they continued fourteen days, and 
on the fourteenth night the mariners dis- 
covered they were near some coast ; and, 
therefore, to avoid the rocks, thought pro- 
per to come to an anchor, till the morning 
might give them better information. 

During the time they continued at an- 
chor, waiting for the light of the morning, 
St. Paul prevailed upon them to eat 
and refresh themselves, having fasted a 
long time, assuring them they should all 
escape. 

The country near which they were, was, 
as St. Paul had foretold, an island called 
Melita, now Malta, situated in the Libyan 
Sea, between Syracuse and Africa. Here 
they landed, and met with great civility 
from the people, who treated them with 
humanity, and entertained them with every 
necessary accommodation. But whilst St. 
Paul was laying a few sticks on the fire, 
a viper, enlivened by the heat, came from 
among the wood, and fastened on his 

hand. 



356 THE LIVES OF 

hand. On seeing this, the inhabitants of 
the island concluded that he was certainly 
some notorious murderer, whom the divine 
vengeance, though it suffered him to escape 
the sea, had reserved for a more public 
and solemn execution. But when they saw 
him shake off the venomous creature into 
the fire, and no manner of harm ensue, 
they changed their sentiments, and cried 
out that he was a god. 

After three months' stay in this island, 
the centurion, with his charge, went on 
board the Castor and Pollux, a ship of 
Alexandria, bound to Italy. They put in 
at Syracuse, where they tarried three 
days ; they then sailed to Rhegium, and 
from thence to Puteoli, where they landed; 
and finding some Christians there, staid, 
at their request, a week with them, and 
then set forward on their journey to Rome. 
The Christians of this city, hearing of the 
apostle's coming, went to meet him as far 
as the distance of about thirty miles from 
Rome, and others as far as the Appii-forum, 
fifty-one miles distant from the capital. 
They kindly embraced each other; and 
the liberty he saw the Christians enjoy at 
Rome greatly tended to enliven the spirits 
of the apostle. 

CHAP. VII. 

The Transactions of St. Paul, from his Ar- 
rival at Rome till his Martyrdom. 

AVING refreshed himself after the 
fatigue of his voyage, the apostle 
sent for the heads of the Jewish consistory 
at Rome, and related to them the cause of 
his coming, in the following manner : — 
" Though I have been guilty of no viola- 
tion of the laws of our religion, yet I was 
delivered by the Jews at Jerusalem to the 
Roman governors, who more than once 



THE APOSTLES. 

would have acquitted me, as innocent of 
any capital offence ; but by the perverse- 
ness of my persecutors, I was obliged to 
appeal to Cesar ; not that I had any thing 
to accuse my nation of ; I had recourse 
to this method merely to clear my own 
innocency." 

Having thus removed a popular preju- 
dice, he added, "That the true cause of 
his sufferings was what their own religion 
had taught him, the belief and expectation of 
a future resurrection." But his discourse 
had different effects on different hearers, 
some being convinced, and others persist- 
ing in their infidelity. 

For two whole years Paul dwelt at Rome, 
in a house he had hired for his own use ; 
wherein he assiduously employed himself 
in preaching and writing for the good of 
the church. 

Among others of the apostle's converts 
at Rome was one Onesimus, who had 
formerly been a servant to Philemon, a 
person of distinction at Colosse, but had 
run away from his master, and fraudu- 
lently taken with him some things of 
value. 

Having rambled as far as Rome, he was 
now converted by the instrumentality of 
St. Paul, who advised him to return to his 
master, and gave him a short recommen- 
datory letter, " earnestly desiring his mas- 
ter to pardon him, and, notwithstanding 
his former faults, to treat him kindly, and 
use him as a brother ; promising withal, 
that if he bad wronged, or owed him any 
thing, he himself would repay it." 

This epistle may be considered as a 
masterpiece of eloquence, in the persua- 
sive way ; for in it the apostle had recourse 
to all the considerations which friendship, 
religion, piety, and tenderness, can inspire, 
to reconcile an incensed master to his 
servant. 

The 




THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



357 



The Christians of Philippi hearing of 
St. Paul's being at Rome, and not know- 
ing what distress he might be reduced to, 
raised a contribution for him, and sent it 
by Epaphroditus, their bishop ; by whom 
he returned an epistle to them, wherein 
he gives some account of the state of his 
affairs at Rome, gratefully acknowledges 
their kindness to him, warns them against 
the dangerous opinions which the Judaiz- 
ing teachers began to propagate among 
them, and advises them to live in continual 
obedience to Christ; to avoid disputations, 
delight in pra3^er, be courageous under 
iffliction, united in love, and clothed 
with humility, in imitation of the blessed 
Jesus, who so far humbled himself as to 
become obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross. 

St. Paul lived about three years at Ephe- 
sus, preaching the gospel to the numerous 
inhabitants of that city, and was therefore 
well acquainted with the state and condi- 
tion of the place : so that taking the oppor- 
tunity of Tychicus's going thither, he wrote 
his epistle to the Ephesians ; wherein he 
endeavours to countermine the principles 
and practices both of the Jews and Gen- 
tiles, to confirm them in the belief and 
practice of the Christian doctrine, and 
to instruct them fully in the great mys- 
teries of the gospel ; their redemption and 
justification by the death of Christ ; their 
gratuitous election ; their union with the 
Jews in one body, of which Christ is the 
head ; and the glorious exaltation of that 
head above all creatures, both spiritual 
and temporal : together with many excel- 
lent precepts, both as to the general duties 
of religion, and the duties of their parti- 
cular relations. 

St. Paul himself had never been at 
Colosse: Epaphras, who was then at Rome, 
had preached the gospel there with good 



success; and from him he might learn that 
certain false teachers had endeavoured to 
persuade the people, that they ought not 
to apply to God by Jesus Christ, who, 
since his ascension, was so far exalted 
above them, that angels were now become 
the proper mediators between God and 
man ; and therefore, in opposition to this, 
as w r ell as other seducing doctrines of the 
same nature, he wrote his epistle to the 
Colossians ; wherein he magnificently dis- 
plays the Messiah, and all the benefits flow- 
ing from him, as being the image of his 
Father, the Redeemer of all mankind, the 
Reconciler of all things to God, and the 
Head of the church, who gives life and vi- 
gour to all its members. 

By what means St. Paul was discharged 
from the accusation which the Jews had 
brought against him, we have no account 
in history ; but it is natural to suppose, 
that not having sufficient proof of what 
they alleged, or being informed that the 
crimes they had accused him of were no 
violation of the Roman laws, they durst not 
implead him before the emperor, and so 
permitted him to be discharged of course. 
But by whatever means he procured his 
liberty, it is thought he wrote his epistle to 
the Hebrews before he left Italy, from 
whence he dates his salutations. 

The principal design of it is to magnify 
Christ, and the religion of the gospel, above 
Moses and the Jewish economy, in order 
to establish and confirm the converted 
Jews in the firm belief and profession of 
Christianity, notwithstanding the troubles 
and persecutions that would certainly at- 
tend them. 

Having thus discharged his ministry, 
both by preaching and writing, in Italy, 
St. Paul, accompanied by Timothy, prose- 
cuted his long intended journey into Spain ; 
and, according to the testimony of several 

4 X writers, 



"A 



358 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



writers, crossed the sea, and preached the 
gospel in Britain ; though by others this 
matter is very much doubted. 

What success he had in these western 
parts, is not known ; he, however, conti- 
nued there eight or nine months, and then 
returned again to the east, visited Sicily, 
Greece, and Crete, and then repaired to 
Rome. 

Here he met with Peter, and was, to- 
gether with him, thrown into prison, 
doubtless in the general persecution raised 
against the Christians, under pretence that 
they had set fire to the city. How long he 
remained in prison is uncertain ; nor do 
we know whether he was scourged before 
his execution. He was, however, allowed 
the privilege of a Roman citizen, and there- 
fore beheaded. 

Being come to the place of execution, 
which was the Salvia n waters, three miles 
from Rome, he cheerfully, after a solemn 
preparation, gave his neck to the fatal 
stroke; and from this vale of misery passed 
to the blissful regions of immortality, to the 
kingdom of his beloved Master, the great 
Redeemer of the human race. 

St. Clement, the contemporary of St. 
Paul, speaks of that apostle in the follow- 
ing terms, in his first epistle to the Corin- 
thians : " By means of jealousy, Paul 
has received the prize of perseverance. 
Having been seven times in bonds ; having 
been evil entreated and stoned ; having 
preached in the east and in the west; he 
has obtained the glorious prize of his faith. 
After having instructed all the world in 
righteousness, coming into the west, he 
has suffered martyrdom under those who 
command ; and thus quitting the world, 
after having shewn in it a great example 
of patience, he is gone into the holy 
place." 

He was buried in the Via Ostiensis, about 



two miles from Rome. And about the 
year 317, Constantine the Great, at the in- 
stance of pope Silvester, built a stately 
church over his grave, adorned it with a 
hundred marble columns, and beautified it 
with the most exquisite workmanship. 

St. Paul seems to have been eminently 
fitted for the apostleship of the Gentiles, 
to contend with and confute the grave and 
the wise, the acute and the subtle, the 
sage and the learned, of the heathen world, 
and to wound them with arrows from their 
own quiver. He seldom, indeed, made 
use of learning and philosophy, it being 
more agreeable to the design of the gospel, 
to confound the wisdom and learning of 
the world by the plain doctrine of the 
cross. 

He was humbled to the lowest step of 

. ..." * 

debasement and condescension, no one 
ever thinking better of others, or more 
meanly of himself. And though, when he 
had to deal with envious and malicious ad- 
versaries, who endeavoured by vilifying his 
person to obstruct his ministry, he knew 
how to magnify his office, and to let them 
know, that he w T as not inferior to the chief- 
est of the apostles; yet at other times, he 
always declared to the world that he con- 
sidered himself the least of the apostles, not 
meet to be called an apostle ; and, as if this 
were not enough, he formed a word on 
purpose to express his humility, styling 
himself eaaxistotepon, that is, less than the 
least of the saints, nay, the very chief of sin- 
ners. 

His repentance and sobriety were re- 
markable ; for he often abridged himself 
of the conveniency of lawful and neces- 
sary accommodations. 

What he taught to others, he practised 
himself ; his conversation was in heaven, and 
his desires were to depart, and to be with 
Christ ; and hence it is very probable, that 

he 



THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



359 



he always led a single life, though some of 
the ancients rank him among the married 
ipostles. 

His kindness and charity were remark- 
able ; he had a compassionate tenderness 
for the poor, and a quick sense of the 
wants « ¥ others. To what church soever 
he came, it was always one of his first 
cares to make provision for the poor, and 
to stir up the bounty of the rich and weal- 
thy ; nay, he worked often with his own 
hands, not only to maintain himself, but 
also to help and relieve the poor. But 
his charity to the souls of men was infi- 
nitely greater, fearing no dangers, refus- 
ing no labours, going through good and 
evil report, that he might gain men over 
to the knowledge of the truth, and bring 
them out of the crooked paths, and place 
them in the straight way that leadeth to 
life eternal. 

Nor was his charity to men greater than 
his zeal to God, labouring with all his might 
to promote the honour of his divine Master. 
When at Athens, he sasv them involved in 
the grossest superstition and idolatry, and 
giving the honour that was due to God 
alone, to statues and images ; this fired his 
zeal, and he could not but let them know 
the resentment of his mind, and how great- 
ly they dishonoured God, the great maker 
and preserver of the world. Nor, in the 
course of a most extensive ministry, was 
he tired either with the dangers and diffi- 
culties he met with, or the troubles and op- 
positions that were raised against him. 

This will easily appear, if we take a 



survey of what trials and sufferings he un- 
derwent, some parts of which are thus 
briefly summed up by himself : In labours 
abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons 
frequent, in deaths oft; thrice beaten with 
rods, once stoned, thrice suffered shipwreck, 
a night and a day in the deep ; in journey ings 
often, in perils of waters, in perils by his 
countrymen, in perils by the Heathens, in 
perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in 
perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 
in weariness and painfullness, in watchings 
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, 
in cold and nakedness ; and besides those things 
that were without, that which daily came upon 
him, the care of all the churches. An ac- 
count, though very great, yet far short of 
what he endured. He did not want soli- 
citations, both from Jews and Gentiles ; 
and might doubtless, in some measure, have 
made his own terms, would he have been 
false to his trust, and quitted that way 
which they so violently opposed. 

But those things weighed very little with 
our apostle, who counted not his life dear 
unto him, so that he might finish his course 
with joy, and the ministry which he had re- 
ceived of the Lord Jesus. And therefore, 
when he thought himself under the sen- 
tence of death, could triumphantly say, / 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith. In short, he 
was a man in whom the grace of God was 
displayed with peculiar lustre, and who 
gave the most convincing proofs, that the 
influence of the gospel principles exceeds all 
moral and legal obligations. 



SAINT 



( 360 ) 



SAINT ANDREW. 



CHAP. I. 

The Transactions of St. Andrew, from his 
Birth, to his being called to the Apostleship. 

THIS apostle was born at Bethsaida, 
a city of Galilee, built on the banks 
of the lake of Gennesaret, and was son to 
John, or Jonas, a fisherman of that town. 
He was brother to Simon Peter, but whe- 
ther older or younger is not certainly 
known, though the generality of the an- 
cients intimate that he was the younger. 
He was brought up to his father's trade, at 
which he laboured till our blessed Saviour 
called him to be a " fisher of men," for 
which he was, by some preparatory in- 
structions, qualified, even before the ap- 
pearance of the Messiah. 

John the Baptist had lately preached 
the doctrine of repentance ; and was, by 
the generality of the Jews, from the impar- 
tiality of his precepts, and the remarkable 
strictness and austerity of his life, held in 
great veneration. 

In the number of his followers was our 
apostle, who accompanied him beyond 
Jordan, when the Messiah, who had some 
time before been baptized, came that way. 
Upon his approach, the Baptist pointed 
him out as the Messiah, styling him the 
Lamb of God, the true sacrifice that was 
to expiate the sins of the world. As soon 
as the Baptist had given this character of 
Jesus, Andrew, and another disciple, pro- 
bably St. John, followed the Saviour of 
mankind to the place of his abode. 

After some conversation with him, An- 
drew departed, and having found his bro- 



ther Simon, informed him that he had dis- 
covered the great Messiah, so long expected 
by the house of Jacob ; and accordingly 
brought him to Jesus. They did not, how- 
ever, stay long with their Master, but re- 
turned to their calling;. 

Something more than a year after, Jesus, 
passing through Galilee, found Andrew and 
Peter fishing on the sea of Galilee ; where 
i he fully satisfied them of the greatness and 
divinity of his person, by a miraculous 
draught of fishes, which they took at his 
command. He now told them that they 
should enter on a different series of labours, 
and instead of fish, should, by the efficacy 
and influence of their doctrine upon the 
heart and conscience, catch men ; com- 
manding them to follow him, as his imme- 
diate disciples and attendants : and accord- 
ingly they left all, and followed him. 

CHAP. II. 

The Transactions of St. Andrew, from our 
blessed Saviours Ascension, till his Mar- 
tyrdom. 

AFTER the ascension of the blessed 
Jesus into heaven, and the descent of 
the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, to qualify 
them for their great undertaking, St. An- 
drew, according to the generality of ancient 
writers, was chosen to preach the gospel in 
Scythia, and the neighbouring countries. 

Accordingly, he departed from Jerusa- 
lem, and first travelled through Cappa- 
docia, Galatia, and Bithynia, instructing 
the inhabitants in the faith of Christ, and 
continued his journey along the Euxine 

Sea, 



_ 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



Sea, into the deserts of Scythia. An an- 
cient author tells us, that he first came to 
Amyntus, where, being entertained by a 
Jew, he went into the synagogue, preached 
to them concerning Jesus, and, from the 
prophecies of the Old Testament, proved 
him to be the Messiah, and Saviour of the 
world. Having converted many here, he 
settled the times of their public meetings, 
and ordained them priests. 

He next went to Trapezium, a maritime 
city on the Euxine Sea ; from whence, after 
visiting many other places, he came to 
Nice, where he stayed two years, preach- 
ing and working miracles with great suc- 
cess. After leaving Nice, he passed to Ni- 
comeclia, and from thence to Chalcedon, 
whence he sailed through the Propontis 
afterwards to Amastris. In all these places 
he met with the greatest difficulties, but 
overcame them by an invincible patience 
and resolution. 

He next came to Synope, a city situated 
on the same sea, and famous both for the 
birth and burial of king Mithridates ; here 
he met with his brother Peter, and stayed 
with him a considerable time. The inha- 
bitants of Synope were mostly Jews, who, 
partly from a zeal for their religion, and 
partly from their barbarous manners, were 
exasperated against St. Andrew, and en- 
tered into a confederacy to burn the house 
in which he lodged. But being disap- 
pointed in their design, they treated him 
with the most savage cruelty, throwing him 
on the ground, stamping upon him with 
their feet, pulling and dragging him from 
place to place ; some beating him with 
clubs, some pelting him with stones, and 
others, to satisfy their brutal revenge, 
biting off the flesh with their teeth, till, ap- 
prehending they had entirely deprived him 
of life, they cast him out into the fields. 
But he miraculously recovered, and re- 



361 

turned publicly into the city ; by which, 
and other miracles he wrought among 
them, many were converted from the error 
of their ways, and induced to become 
disciples of the blessed Jesus. 

Departing from Synope, he returned to 
Jerusalem ; but he did not continue long- 
in that neighbourhood. H e returned again 
to the province allotted him for the exer- 
cise of his ministry, which greatly flou- 
rished, through the power of the divm«- 
grace that attended it. 

He travelled over Thrace, Macedonia^ 
Thessaly, Achaia, and Epirus, p reaching 
the gospel, propagating Christianity, and 
then confirming the doctrine he taught 
with signs and miracles. At last he came 
to Petrea, a city of Achaia, where he gave 
his last and greatest testimony to the gos- 
pel of his divine Master, sealing it Avith his 
blood. 

iEgenas, proconsul of Achaia, came at 
this time to Petrea, where, observing that 
multitudes had abandoned the heathen re- 
ligion, and embraced the gospel of Christ, 
he had recourse to every method, both of 
favour and cruelty, to reduce the people 
to their old idolatry. The apostle, whom 
no difficulties or dangers could deter from 
performing the duties of his ministry, ad- 
dressed himself to the proconsul, calmly 
putting him in mind that, being only a 
judge of men, he ought to revere him who 
was the supreme and impartial Judge of 
all, pay him the divine honours due to his 
exalted majesty, and abandon the impieties 
of his idolatrous worship ; observing to 
him, that if he would renounce his idola- 
tries, and heartily embrace the Christian 
faith, he should, with him and the mem- 
bers who had believed in the Son of God, 
receive eternal happiness in the Messiah's 
kingdom. The proconsul answered, that 
he himself should never embrace the reh- 

4 Y gion 



362 



THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



gion he mentioned; and that the only rea- 
son why he was so earnest with him to sa- 
crifice to the gods, was, that those whom he 
had every where seduced, might by his 
example be brought back to the ancient 
religion they had forsaken. The apostle 
replied, that he saw it was in vain to en- 
deavour to persuade a person incapable of 
sober counsels, and hardened in his own 
blindness and folly ; that with regard to 
himself, he might act as he pleased, and if 
he had any torment greater than another, 
he might heap that upon him ; as the greater 
constancy he shewed in his sufferings for 
Christ, the more acceptable he should be to 
his Lord and Master. iEgenas could hold 
no longer, and after treating him with very 
opprobrious language, and shewing him 
the most distinguished marks of contempt, 
he passed sentence on him that he should 
be put to death. 

He first ordered the apostle to be scourg- 
ed, and seven lictors successively whipped 
his naked body ; but seeing his invincible 
patience and constancy, he commanded 
him to be crucified ; but to be fastened to the 
cross with cords instead of nails, that his 
death might be more lingering and tedious. 

As he was led to the place of execution, 
walking with a cheerful and composed mind, 
the people cried out, that a good and in- 
nocent man was unjustly condemned to die. 
On his coming near the cross, he saluted it 
in the following manner : " I have long 
desired and expected this happy hour. 
The cross has been consecrated by the 
body of Christ hanging on it, and adorned 
with his members as with so many inesti- 
mable jewels. I therefore come joyfully 
and triumphing to it, that it may receive 
me as a disciple and follower of him who 
once hung upon it, and be the means of 



carrying me safe to my Master, being the 
instrument on which he redeemed me/' 

After offering up his prayers to the 
throne of grace, and exhorting the people 
to constancy and perseverance in the faith 
he had delivered to them, he was fastened 
to the cross, on which he hung two whole 
days, teaching and instructing the people 
in the best manner his wretched situation 
would admit, being sometimes so weak 
and faint as scarce to have the power of 
utterance. 

In the mean time great interest was made 
to the proconsul to spare his life ; but the 
apostle earnestly begged of the Almighty, 
that he might now depart, and seal the 
truth of his religion with his blood. His 
prayers were heard, and he expired, it is 
said, on the last day of November, but in 
what year is uncertain. 

There seems to have been something 
peculiar in the form of the cross on which 
he suffered. It was commonly thought to 
have been a cross decussate, or two pieces 
of timber crossing each other in the cen- 
tre in the form of the letter X, and hence 
usually known by the name of St. An- 
drew's cross. 

His body being taken down from the 
cross, was decently and honourably inter- 
red by Maximilia, a lady of great quality 
and estate, and who, Nicephorus tells us, 
was wife to the proconsul. 

Constantine the Great afterwards remov- 
ed his body to Constantinople, and buried 
it in the great church he had built to the 
honour of the apostles ; but this structure 
being taken down some hundred years 
after in order to rebuild it, by Justinian 
the emperor, the body of St. Andrew was 
found in a wooden coffin, and again depo- 
sited in its proper place. 



SAINT 



SAINT JAMES 



THE GREAT. 



CHAP. I. 

The Transactions of St. James the Great, 
from his Birth, to the Ascension of the Son 
of God. 

THIS apostle (who was surnamed the 
Great, by way of distinction from 
another of that name) was the son of Ze- 
bedee, and by trade a fisherman, to which 
he applied himself with remarkable assi- 
duity, and was exercising his employment, 
when the Saviour of the world, passing by 
the sea of Galilee, saw him, with his bro- 
ther, in the ship, and called them both to 
be his disciples. Nor was the call in vain: 
they cheerfully complied with it, and im- 
mediately left all to follow him ; readily 
delivering themselves up to perform what- 
ever service he should appoint them. 

Soon after this, he was called from the 
station of an ordinary disciple, to the apos- 
tolical office, and even honoured with some 
particular favours beyond most of the apos- 
tles, being one of the three whom our Lord 
made choice of as his companions in the 
more intimate transactions of his life, 
from which the rest were excluded. Thus, 
with Peter and his brother John, he at- 
tended his Master when he raised the 
daughter of Jairus from the dead ; he w T as 
admitted to Christ's glorious transfiguration 
on the mount ; and when the holy Jesus 
was to undergo his bitter agonies in the 
garden, as preparatory sufferings to his 
passion, James was one of the three taken 
to be a spectator of them. Nor was it the 
least instance of that particular honour our 
J-ord conferred on these apostles, that at 
his calling them to the apostleship, he gave 
them a new name and title. Simon he 



called Peter, or a Rock ; and James and 
John, who were brothers, Boanerges, or 
The sons of thunder. 

Some think that this name was given 
them on account of their loud and bold 
preaching the gospel to the world, fearing 
no threatening^, despising all opposition, 
and going on thundering in the ears of a 
drowsy and sleepy world ; rousing and 
awakening the consciences of men with 
the earnestness and vehemence of their 
preaching, which resembled thunder, as 
the voice of God powerfully shakes the 
natural world, and breaks in pieces the 
cedars of Lebanon. Others think it re- 
lates to the doctrine they delivered, teach- 
ing the great mysteries, and promulgating 
the gospel, in a more profound and lofty 
strain than the rest. 

But however this be, our blessed Saviour, 
doubtless, alluded by this term to the na- 
turally furious and resolute disposition of 
these two brothers, who seem to have been 
of a more fiery temper than the rest of the 
apostles, of which we have this memorable 
instance : when our Lord was determined 
on his journey to Jerusalem, he sent some 
of his disciples before him to make prepa- 
rations for his coming ; but, on their en- 
tering a village of Samaria, they were 
rudely rejected, from the old grudge that 
subsisted between the Samaritans and Jews, 
and because the Saviour, by going up to 
Jerusalem, seemed to slight their place of 
worship on mount Gerizim. This piece of 
rudeness and inhumanity was so highly 
resented by St. James and his brother, 
that they came to Jesus, desiring to know 
if he would not imitate Elias, by calling 
down fire from heaven to consume this 

barbarous 



364 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



barbarous inhospitable people? Thus we 
perceive that the apostles were but men, 
and that corrupt nature may sometimes 
appear even in renewed minds. But the 
holy Jesus soon convinced them of their 
mistake, by telling them, that instead of 
destroying, he was come to save, the lives 
of the children of men. 

CHAP. II. 

The Transactions of St. James, from the 
Messiah's Ascension to his sealing the 
Truth of the Gospel with his Blood. 

^OPHRONIUS tells us, that after the 
^5 ascension of the blessed Jesus, this 
apostle preached to the dispersed Jews ; 
that is, to those converts w T ho dispersed 
after the death of Stephen. The Spanish 
writers will have it, that after preaching 
the gospel in several parts of Judea and 
Samaria, he visited Spain, where he planted 
Christianity, and appointed some select 
disciples to perfect what he had begun; 
but if we consider the shortness of St. 
James's life, and that the apostles conti- 
nued in a body at Jerusalem, even after 
the dispersion of the other Christians, we 



shall find it difficult to allow time sufficient 
for so tedious and difficult a voyage as that 
was in those early ages ; and therefore it is 
safest to confine his ministry to Judea and 
the adjacent countries. 

Herod, who was a bigot to the Jewish 
religion, as well as desirous of acquiring 
the favour of the Jews, began a violent 
persecution of the Christians, and his zeal 
against them animated him to pass sen- 
tence of death on St. James immediately. 
As he was led to the place of execution, 
the officer that guarded him to the tribu- 
nal, or rather his accuser, having been con- 
verted by that remarkable courage and 
constancy shewn by the apostle at the time 
of his trial, repented of what he had done, 
came and fell down at the apostle's feet, 
and heartily begged pardon for what he 
had said against him. The holy man, af- 
ter recovering from the surprise, tenderly 
embraced him. Peace, said he, my son, 
peace be unto thee, and pardon of thy faults. 
Upon which the officer publicly declared 
himself a Christian, and both were behead- 
ed at the same time. Thus fell the great 
apostle St. James, taking cheerfully that 
cup, of which he had long before told his 
Lord he was ready to drink. 



SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



CHAP. I. 

The Transactions of St. John, from his Birth 
to the Ascension of his great Lord and 
Master. 

ROM the very minute and circum- 
stantial account this evangelist gives 
of J ohn the Baptist, he is supposed to have 
been one of his followers, and is thought 



to be that other disciple who, in im first 
chapter of his Gospel, is said to have been 
present with Andrew, when John declared 
Jesus to be the Lamh of God, and there- 
upon to have followed him to the place of 
his abode. 

He was by much the youngest of the 
apostles, yet he was admitted into as great 
a share of his Master's confidence as any of 

them. 




THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



365 



them. He was one of those to whom he 
communicated the most private transac- 
tions of his life ; one of those whom he 
took with him when he raised the daught- 
er of Jairus from the dead ; one of those 
to whom he displayed a specimen of his 
divinity, in his transfiguration on the 
mount ; one of those who were present at 
his conference with Moses and Elias, and 
heard that voice which declared him the 
beloved Son of God ; and one of those who 
were companions in his solitude, most re- 
tired devotions, and bitter agonies in the 
garden. 

These instances of particular favour, our 
apostle endeavoured, in some measure, to 
answer by returns of particular kindness 
and constancy. For though he at first de- 
serted his Master on his apprehension, yet 
he soon recovered himself, and came back 
to see his Saviour, confidently entered the 
high-priest's hall, followed our Lord thro' 
the several particulars of his trial, and at 
last waited on him at his execution, own- 
ing him, as well as being owned by him, 
in the midst of armed soldiers, and in the 
thickest crowds of his most inveterate ene- 
mies. Here it was that our great Redee- 
mer committed to his care his sorrowful 
and disconsolate mother, with his dying 
breath. And certainly the holy Jesus 
could not have given a more honourable 
testimony of his particular respect and 
kindness to St. John, than by leaving his 
own mother to his trust and care, and substi- 
tuting him to supply that duty himself paid 
her while he resided in this vale of sorrow. 

CHAP. II. 

The Transactions of St. John, from the Ascen- 
sion of Christ to his Death. 

A FTER the ascension of the Saviour of 
the world, when the apostles made 



a division of the provinces among them- 
selves, that of Asia fell to the share of St. 
John, though he did not immediately en- 
ter upon his charge, but continued at Je- 
rusalem till the death of the blessed Vir- 
gin, which might be about fifteen years 
after our Lord's ascension. Being released 
from the trust committed to his care by his 
dying Master, he retired into Asia, and in- 
dustriously applied himself to the propaga- 
tion of Christianity, preaching where the 
gospel had not yet been known, and con- 
firming it where it was already planted. 
Many churches of note and eminence 
were founded by him, particular! y those of 
Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Phila- 
delphia, Laodicea, and others ; but his 
chief place of residence was at Ephesus, 
where St. Paul had many years before 
founded a church, and constituted Timo- 
thy the bishop of it. 

After spending several years at Ephesus, 
he was accused to Domitian, who had be- 
gun a persecution against the Christians, as 
an eminent assertor of atheism and impi- 
ety, and a public subverter of the religion 
of the empire ; so that by his command 
the proconsul sent him bound to Rome, 
where he met with the treatment that 
might have been expected from so barba- 
rous a prince, being thrown into a caldron 
of boiling oil. But the Almighty, who re- 
served him for further service in the vine- 
yard of his Son, restrained the heat, as he 
did in the fiery furnace of old, and deli- 
vered him from this seemingly unavoidable 
destruction. And surely one would have 
thought that so miraculous a deliverance 
should have been sufficient to have per- 
suaded any rational man, that the religion 
he taught was from God, and that he was 
protected from danger by the hand of Om- 
nipotence. But miracles themselves were 
not sufficient to convince this cruel em- 

4 Z peror, 



366 THE LIVES OF 

peror, or abate his fury. He ordered St. 
John to be transported to an almost deso- 
late island in the Archipelago, called Pat- 
mos, where he continued several years, in- 
structing the poor inhabitants in the know- 
ledge of the Christian faith ; and here, 
about the end of Domitian's reign, he 
wrote his book of Revelation, exhibiting 
by visions, and prophetical representations, 
the state and condition of Christianity, 
in the future periods and ages of the 
church. 

Upon the death of Domitian, and the 
succession of Nerva, who repealed all the 
odious acts of his predecessor, and by pub- 
lic edicts recalled those whom the fury of 
Domitian had banished, St. John returned 
to Asia, and fixed his seat again at Ephe- 
sus ; the rather because the people of that 
city had lately martyred Timothy the 
bishop. Here, with the assistance of seven 
other bishops, he took upon himself the 
government of the large diocese of Asia 
Minor, and disposed of the clergy in the 
best manner that the circumstances of 
those times would permit ; spending his 
time in an indefatigable execution of his 
charge ; travelling from east to west, to in- 
struct the world in the principles of the 
holy religion he was sent to propagate. 

In this manner St. John continued to la- 
bour in the vineyard of his great Master, 
until death put a period to all his toils and 
sufferings ; which happened in the begin- 
ning of Trajan's reign, in the ninety-eighth 
year of his age ; and, according to Eu- 
sebius, his remains were buried near 
Ephesus. 

St. John seems always to have led a 
single life ; though some of the ancients 
tell us he was a married man. He was 
polished by no study or arts of learn- 
ing ; but what was wanting from human 
art, was abundantly supplied by the ex- 



THE APOSTLES 

cellent faculties of his mind, and that ful- 
ness of divine grace with which he was 
adorned. His humility was admirable, 
studiously concealing his own honour. 
For in his epistles he never styles himself 
either apostle or evangelist; the title of 
presbyter, or elder, is all he assumes, and 
probably in regard to his age as much as 
his office. In his Gospel, when he speaks 
of the disciple whom Jesus loved, he con- 
stantly conceals his own name, leaving the 
reader to discover whom he meant. Love 
and charity he practised himself, and af- 
fectionately pressed them upon others : the 
great love of his Saviour towards him seems 
to have inspired his soul with a large and 
more generous charity than the rest. This 
is the great vein that runs through all his 
writings, especially his epistles, where he 
urges it as the great and peculiar law of 
Christianity, and without which all other 
pretences to the religion of the holy Jesus 
are vain and frivolous, useless and insigni- 
ficant. And this was his constant prac- 
tice to the very hour of his dissolution; for 
when age and the decays of nature had 
rendered him so weak that he was unable 
to preach to the people any longer, tra- 
dition says, he was constantly led, at every 
public meeting, to the church of Ephesus, 
and always repeated to them the same pre- 
cept, Little children, love one another. And 
when his hearers, wearied with the con- 
stant repetition of the same thing, asked 
him why he never varied his discourse, he 
answered, Because to love one another was 
the command of our blessed Saviour, and, 
consequently, one grand guide of our con- 
duct through life. 

The greatest instance of our apostle's 
care for the souls of men, is in the writings 
he left to posterity ; the first of which in 
time, though placed last in the sacred ca- 
non, is his Apocalypse, or Book of Reve- 
lation, 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



367 



lation, which he wrote during his banish- 
ment at Patmos. 

Next to the Apocalypse, in order of 
time, are his three epistles ; the first of 
which is catholic, calculated for all times 
and places, containing the most excellent 
rules for the conduct of a Christian life, 
pressing to holiness and pureness of man- 
ners, and not to be satisfied with a naked 
and empty profession of religion ; not to 
be led away with the crafty insinuation of 
seducers, and cautioning men against the 
poisonous principles and practices of the 
Gnostics. The apostle here, according to 
his usual modesty, conceals his name ; it 
being of more consequence to a wise man 
what is said, than he who says it. It ap- 
pears from St. Augustine, that this epistle 
was anciently inscribed to the Parthians, 
because in all probability St. John preach- 
ed the gospel in Parthia. The other two 
epistles are but short, and directed to par- 
ticular persons ; the one to a lady of great 
quality, the other to the charitable and 
hospitable Gaius, the kindest friend and 
most courteous entertainer of all indigent 
Christians. 

Be-fore he undertook the task of writing 



the Gospel, he caused a general fast to be 
kept by all the Asiatic churches, to im- 
plore the blessing of Heaven on so great 
and momentous an undertaking. When 
this was done, he set about the work, and 
completed it in so excellent and sublime a 
manner, that the ancients generally com- 
pared him to an eagle soaring aloft among 
the clouds, whither the weak eye of man 
was not able to follow him. " Among all 

O 

the evangelical writers (says St. Basil) none 
is like St. John, the son of thunder, for 
the sublimity of his speech, and the height 
of his discourses, which are beyond any 
man's capacity fully to reach and compre- 
hend." " St. John, as a true son of thun- 
der, (says Epiphanius,) by a loftiness of 
speech peculiar to himself, acquaints us, 
as it were out of the clouds and dark re- 
cesses of wisdom, with the divine doctrine 
of the Son of God." 

Such is the character given of the writ- 
ings of this great apostle and evangelist, 
who was honoured with the endearing 
title of being the beloved disciple of the 
Son of God ; a writer so profound as to 
deserve, by way of eminence, the charac- 
ter of St. John the Divine. 



SAINT PHILIP. 



CHAP. I. 

The Transactions of St. Philip, from his Birth 
to the Time of his being called to the 
Apostleship. 

FipHIS apostle was a native of Beth- 
saicla, the city of Andrew and Peter. 
He had the honour of being first called to 



be a disciple of the great Messiah, which 
happened in the following manner : Our 
blessed Saviour, soon after his return from 
the wilderness, where he had been tempted 
by the devil, met with Andrew and his 
brother Peter, and after some discourse 
parted from them. The next clay, as he 
was passing through Galilee, he found Phi- 
lip, whom he presently commanded to fol- 
low 



36S 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



low him, the constant form he made use of 
in calling his disciples, and those that in- 
separably attended him. So that the pre- 
rogative of being first called evidently be- 
longs to St. Philip, he being the first of our 
Lord's disciples ; for though Andrew and 
Peter were the first that came and con- 
versed with the Saviour of the world, yet 
they immediately returned to their occu- 
pation, and were not called till. a whole 
year after. 

It cannot be doubted, that notwithstand- 
ing St. Philip was a native of Galilee, yet 
he was excellently skilled in the law and 
the prophets. Metaphrastes assures us, 
that he had, from his childhood, been ex- 
cellently educated ; that he frequently 
read over the books of Moses, and atten- 
tively considered the prophecies relating 
to the Messiah. 

Nor was our apostle idle, after the ho- 
nour he had received of being called to at- 
tend the Saviour of the world ; he imme- 
diately imparted the glad tidings of the 
Messiah's appearance to his brother Na- 
thanael, and conducted him to him. 

After being called to the apostleship, we 
have very little recorded of him by the 
evangelists. It was, however, to him that 
our Saviour proposed the question, where 
they should find bread sufficient to satisfy 
the hunger of so great a multitude ? Phi- 
lip answered, that it was not easy to pro- 
cure so great a quantity ; not considering 
that it was equally easy for almighty power 
to feed double the number, when it should 
be his divine will. It was also to the same 
apostle that the Gentile proselytes, who 
came up to worship at Jerusalem, applied, 
when they were desirous to see the Saviour 
of the world. And it was with him our 
Lord had the discourse a little before the 
paschal supper. 

The compassionate Jesus had been for- 



tifying their minds with proper considera- 
tions against his departure from them, and 
had told them that he was going to prepare 
for them a place in the mansions of the 
heavenly Canaan; that he was the way, 
the truth, and the life; and that no man 
could come to the Father but by him. 

Philip, not thoroughly understanding 
the force of his Master's reasoning, beg- 
ged of him that he would shew them the 
Father. 

Our blessed Lord gently reproved his ig- 
norance, that, after attending so long to his 
instructions, he should not know that he 
was the image of his Father, the express 
character of his infinite wisdom, power, 
and goodness, appearing in him ; that he 
said and did nothing but by his Father's 
appointment, which if they did not be- 
lieve, his miracles were a sufficient evi- 
dence ; that such demands were, therefore, 
unnecessary and impertinent; and that it 
was an indication of great weakness in 
him, after three years' education under his 
discipline and instruction, to appear so ig- 
norant with regard to these particulars. 

CHAP. II. 

The Transactions of St. Philip, to the time 
of his Marty rdom. 

HE ancients tell us, that in the dis- 
tribution made by the apostles, of the 
several regions of the world, the Upper 
Asia fell to his share ; where he laboured 
with an indefatigable diligence and indus- 
try. By the constancy and power of his 
preaching, and the efficacy of his mira- 
cles, he gained numerous converts, whom 
he baptized into the Christian faith, curing 
at once their bodies of infirmities and dis- 
tempers, and their souls of errors and ido- 
latry. He continued with them a consi- 
derable 




THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



369 



derable time m settling churches, and ap- 
pointing them guides and ministers of re- 
ligion. 

After several years successfully exercis- 
ing his apostolical office in all those parts, 
he came at last to Hierapolis, in Phrygia, 
a city remarkably rich and populous, but 
at the same time overrun with the most 
enormous idolatry. 

St. Philip being grieved to see the peo- 
ple so wretchedly enslaved by error and 
superstition, continually offered his ad- 
dresses to Heaven, till by his prayers, and 
often calling on the name of Christ, he pro- 
cured the death, or, at least, the vanishing, 
of an enormous serpent, to which they 
paid adoration. 

Having thus demolished their deity, he 
demonstrated to them how ridiculous and 
unjust it was for them to pay divine ho- 
nours to such odious creatures ; shewed 
them that God alone was to be worship- 
ped as the great parent of all the world, 
who in the beginning made man after his 
glorious image, and, when fallen from that 
innocent and happy state, sent his own Son 
into the world to redeem him ; that, in or- 



der to perform this glorious work, he died 
on the cross, and rose again from the dead, 
and at the end of the world will come 
again to raise all the sons of men from the 
chambers of the dust, and sentence them 
to everlasting rewards and punishments. — 
This discourse roused them from their le- 
thargy, they were ashamed of their late 
idolatry, and great numbers embraced the 
doctrines of the gospel. 

This provoked the great enemy of man- 
kind, and he had recourse to his old me- 
thods, cruelty and persecution. The ma- 
gistrates of the city seized the apostle, and, 
having thrown him into prison, caused 
him to be scourged. When this prepara- 
tory cruelty was over, he was led to execu- 
tion, and, being bound, was hanged against 
a pillar ; or, according to others, crucified. 
The apostle being dead, his body was 
taken down by St. Bartholomew, his fel- 
low-labourer in the gospel, and Mariamne, 
St. Philip's sister, the constant compa- 
nion of his travels, and decently buried : 
after which they confirmed the people 
in the faith of Christ, and departed from 
them 



SAINT BARTHOLOMEW. 



CHAP. I. 

The Transactions of Saint Bartholomew, from 
his Birth to the Ascension of his great 
Master. 

npHIS apostle is mentioned amongst the 
twelve immediate disciples of our 
Lord, under the appellation of Bartholo- 
mew; though it is evident, from divers 
passages of scripture, that he was also call- 
ed Nathanael; we shall therefore, in our 



account of his life, consider the names of 
Nathanael and Bartholomew, as belonging 
to one and the same person. 

With regard to his descent and family, 
some are of opinion that he was a Syrian, 
and that he was descended from the Pto- 
lemies of Egypt. But it is plain, from the 
evangelical history, that he was a Galilean; 
St. John having expressly told us that Na- 
thanael was of Cana in Galilee. 

The scripture is silent with regard to his 
trade and manner of life, though from 

5 A some 



I 



i 



370 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



some circumstances there is room to ima- 
gine that he was a fisherman. He was, at 
his first coming to Christ, conducted by 
Philip, who told him they had now found 
the long-expected Messiah, so often fore- 
told by Moses and the prophets, Jesus of 
Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And when he 
objected, that the Messiah could not be 
born at Nazareth ; Philip desired him to 
come and satisfy himself that he was the 
Messiah. 

At his approach, our blessed Saviour sa- 
luted him with this honourable appellation, 
that he was an Israelite indeed, in whom 
there was no guile ; not as possessed by na- 
ture, but as obtained by grace ; for such 
perfection cannot be attached to human 
nature, but in the character of the blessed 
Jesus, of whom it is said, with peculiar 
propriety, that he was holy, harmless, unde- 
filecl, separate from sinners; also, that he 
knew no sin, neither was guile, that is, fraud 
or deception, found in his tongue. Our 
Saviour knew that Bartholomew's doubt of 
his Messiahship arose from Philip's an- 
nouncing him in the character of Jesus of 
Nazareth, a place stigmatized for the vices 
of its inhabitants ; which, on a similar oc- 
casion, caused an interrogatory, which ac- 
cords with Bartholomew's opinion, Can 
any good come out of Nazareth ? Our Sa- 
viour therefore commends his frankness, 
by denominating him an Israelite indeed, in 
whom there is no guile. In another sense he 
appeared to he a true Israelite, or one that 
waited for redemption in Israel, which, from 
the times mentioned in the scripture pre- 
dictions, he knew to be near at hand. 

He was greatly surprised at our Lord's 
salutation, wondering how he could know 
him at first si«;ht, as imagining he had ne- 
ver before seen his face. But he was an- 
swered, that he had seen him while he was 
yet under the fig-tree, even before Philip 



called him. Convinced by this instance of 
our Lord's divinity, he presently made his 
confession, that he was now sure that Je- 
sus was the promised Messiah, the Son of 
God, whom he had appointed to govern 
the church. Our blessed Saviour told him, 
that if from this instance he could believe 
him to be the Messiah, he should have far 
greater arguments to confirm his faith ; for 
that he should hereafter behold the hea- 
vens opened to receive him, and the angels 
visibly appearing, joyful at his entrance 
into the heavenly Canaan. 

CHAP. II. 

The Transactions of St. Bartholomew, from the 
Ascension of Christ to his Martyrdom. 

| U II apostle having his peculiar spot 
allotted him, for the promulgation, of 
the gospel of his blessed Master, who had 
now ascended into heaven, and dispensed 
his Holy Spirit to fit and qualify his dis- 
ciples for the important work, visited differ- 
ent parts of the world to preach the gospel, 
and penetrated as far as the higher India. 
After spending a considerable time in 

A CD 

India, and the eastern extremities of Asia, 
he returned to the northern and western 
parts ; and we find him at Hierapolis, in 
Phrygia, labouring in concert with St. Phi- 
lip to plant Christianity in those parts ; and 
to convince the blind idolaters of the evil 
of their ways, and direct them in the paths 
that lead to eternal salvation. This en- 
raged the bigoted magistrates, and he was, 
together with St. Paul, designed for mar- 
tyrdom, and, in order to this, fastened to 
cross ; but their consciences pricking them 
for a time, they took St. Bartholomew down 
from the cross, and set him at liberty. 

From hence he retired to Lycaonia, and 
[ St.Chrysostom assures us that he instructed 

and 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



Ml 



and trained up the inhabitants in the Chris- 
tian discipline. His last remove was to 
Albanople, in Great Armenia, a place 
miserably overrun with idolatry, from 
which he laboured to reclaim the people. 
But his endeavours to turn them from dark- 
ness unto light, and from the power of Satan 



unto God, so far from having the de- 
sired effect, that it provoked the magis- 
trates, who prevailed on the governor to 
put him to death ; which he cheerfully un- 
derwent, sealing the truth of the doctrine, 
he had preached with his blood. 



SAINT MATTHEW. 



CHAP. I. 

The Transactions of St. Matthew from his 
Birth to the Ascension of Christ. 

T. MATTHEW, called also Levi, tho' 
a Roman officer, was a true Hebrew, 
and probably a Galilean. His trade was 
that of a publican, or tax-gatherer to the 
Romans, an office detested by the generality 
of the Jews on two accounts ; first, because 
having farmed the custom of the Romans, 
they used every method of oppresion in 
order to pay their rents to them ; secondly, 
because they demanded tribute of the 
Jews, who considered themselves as a free 
people, having received that privlege from 
God himself. And hence they had a com- 
mon proverb among them, "Take not a wife 
out of that family in which there is a pub- 
lican ; for these are all publicans :" that 
is, they are all thieves, robbers, and noto- 
rious sinners. And to this proverbial 
speech and custom our blessed Saviour 
alludes, when speaking of an hardened 
sinner, on whom neither private reproofs, 
nor the public censures and admonitions 
of the church, can prevail : Let him be to 
thee as an heathen man and a 'publican. 

Our blessed Saviour having cured a per- 
son long afflicted with the palsey, retired 
out of Capernaum, to walk by the sea- 



side ; where he taught the people that 
flocked after him. 

Here he saw Matthew sitting in his 
office, and called him to follow him. The 
man was rich, had a large and profitable 
employment, was a wise and prudent per- 
son, and doubtless understood what would 
be his loss to comply with the call of Jesus. 
He was not ignorant that he must exchange 
wealth for poverty, a custom-house for a 
prison, and rich and powerful masters for 
a naked and despised Saviour. But he 
overlooked all these considerations, left all 
his interest and relations, to become our 
Lord's disciples, and to embrace a more 
spiritual way of life. 

The Pharisees, who sought all opportu- 
nities of raising objections against the doc- 
trines of the blessed Jesus, took this oppor- 
tunity of suggesting to his disciples, that it 
was highly unbecoming so pure and holy 
a person as their Master appeared to be, to 
converse so familiarly with the worst of 
men ; with publicans and sinners, persons 
infamous to a proverb. But he presently 
replied to them, that these were the sick, 
and therefore needed the physician ; that 
his company was of most consequence 
where the souls of men most required it : 
that God preferred works of mercy and 
charity, especially in doing good to the 
souls of men, infinitely above all ritual 

observance , 




372 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



servances ; and that the principal design of 
his comino- into the world was not to call the 

O 

righteous, or those who, like themselves, 
vainly pretended to be so, but sinners, no- 
torious convinced sinners, to repentance. 

After St. Matthew's election to the apos- 
tleship, he continued with the rest till the 
ascension of his great and beloved Master; 
but the evangelical writers have recorded 
nothing particular concerning him, during 
that period. 

CHAP. II. 

The Transactions of St. Matthew, from the 
Ascension of Christ to his Martyrdom. 

ITER our blessed Saviour's ascen- 
sion into heaven, St. Matthew, for 
the first eight years at least, preached in 
different parts of Judea ; but afterwards he 
left the country of Palestine, to convert 
the Gentile world. Before his departure 
he was entreated by the Jewish converts to 
write the history of the life and actions of 
the blessed Jesus, and leave it among them 
as a standing monument of what he had so 
often delivered to them in his sermons. 
This he readily complied with, as we shall 
more particularly mention in giving an ac- 
count of his Gospel. 

After his leaving Judea, he travelled 
into several parts, especially Ethiopia: but 
the particular places he visited are not 
known with any certainty. 

However, after labouring indefatigably 
in the vineyard of his Master, he suffered 
martyrdom at a city of Ethiopia, called 
Naddabar ; but by what kind of death is 
not absolutely known, though the general 
opinion is, that he was slain with an halbert. 

St. Matthew was a remarkable instance 
of the power of religion, in bringing men 
to a better temper of mind. If we reflect 



upon his circumstances while he continued 
a stranger to the great Redeemer of man- 
kind, we shall find that the love of the 
world had possessed his heart. But not- 
withstanding this, no sooner did Christ 
call him, than he abandoned, without the 
least scruple or hesitation, all his riches ; 
nay, he not only renounced his lucrative 
trade, but ran the greatest hazard of dis- 
pleasing the masters who employed him, 
for quitting their service without giving 
them the least notice, and leaving his ac- 
counts in apparent confusion. Had our 
blessed Saviour appeared as a secular prince 
clothed with temporal power and authority, 
it would have been no wonder for him to 
have gone over to his service ; but when 
he appeared under all the circumstances of 
meanness and disgrace, when he seems to 
have promised his followers nothing out- 
wardly but sufferings in this life, and to 
have proposed no other rewards than the 
invisible encouragements of another world, 
his change appears truly wonderful and 
surprising : but divine grace can subdue 
all opposition. 

His contempt of the world appeared in 
his exemplary temperance, and abstemi- 
ousness from all delights and pleasures ; 
nay, even from the ordinary conveniences 
and accommodations of it. He was mean 
and modest in his own opinion, always 
preferring others to himself; for whereas 
the other evangelists, in describing the 
apostles by pairs, constantly place him be- 
fore St. Thomas, he modestly places him 
before himself. The rest of the evange- 
lists are careful to mention the honour of 
his apostleship, but speak of his former 
sordid, dishonest, and disgraceful course of 
life, only under the name of Levi ; while 
he himself sets it down, with all the cir- 
cumstances, under his own proper and 
common name. A conduct which at once 

com- 




THE LIVES OE THE APOSTLES. 



373 



commends the prudence and candour of 
the apostle, and suggests to us this useful 
reflection, that the greatest sinners are not 
excluded from divine grace ; nor can any, 
if penitent, have just reason to despair, 
when publicans and sinners find mercy at 
the throne of grace. 

The last thing we shall remark in the 
life of the apostle, is his Gospel, written at 
the entreaty of the Jewish converts, while 
he abode in Palestine ; but at what time is 
uncertain : some will have it to have been 
written eight, some fifteen, and some thirty 



years after ourLord's ascension. It was first 
written in Hebrew, but soon after translated 
into Greek by one of the disciples. 

After the Greek translation was admitted, 
the Hebrew copy was chiefly owned and 
used by the Nazaraei, a middle sect between 
Jews and Christians : with the former, 
they adhered to the rites and ceremonies of 
the Mosaic law ; and with the latter, they 
believed in Christ, and embraced his reli- 
gion ; and hence this Gospel has been sty- 
led, The Gospel according to the Hebrews ; 
and, the Gospel of the Nazarenes. 



SAINT THOMAS. 



CHAP. I. 

The Transactions of St. Thomas, from his 
Birth to the Ascension of our blessed Sa- 
viour. 

VANGELICAL history is entirely si- 
lent with regard either to the country 
or kindred of Thomas. It is, however, 
certain that he was a Jew, and in all pro- 
bability a Galilean. 

He was, together with the rest, called to 
the apostleship ; and not long after gave 
an eminent instance of his being ready to 
undergo the most melancholy fate that 
might attend him. For when the rest of 
the apostles dissuaded their Master from 
going into Judea at the time of Lazarus's 
death, because the Jews lately endeavoured 
to stone him, Thomas desired them not to 
ninder his journey thither, though it might 
cost them all their lives Let us go, said 
he, that we may die with him; concluding, 
that instead of Lazarus being raised from 
the dead, they should all, like him, be 
placed in the chambers of the dust. 



When the holy Jesus, a little before his 
sufferings, had been speaking to them of 
the joys of heaven, and had told them 
that he was g^'ng to prepare mansions for 
them, that they might follow him, and that 
they knew both the place whither he was 
going, and the way thither ; our apostle 
replied, that they knew not whither he 
was going, much less the way that would 
lead them thither To which our Lord 
returned this short, but satisfactory, an- 
swer, I am the way ; I am the person whom 
the Father has sent into the world to shew 
mankind the paths that lead to eternal life, 
and, therefore, you cannot miss the way, 
if you follow my example. 

After the disciples had seen their great 
Master expire on the cross, their minds 
were distracted by hopes and fears con- 
cerning his resurrection, about which they 
were not then fully satisfied ; which en- 
gaged him the sooner to hasten his appear- 
ance, that, by the sensible manifestations 
of himself, he might put the matter be- 
yond all possibility of dispute. Accord- 
ingly, the very day in which he arose from 




374 THE LIVES OF 

the dead, he came into the house where 
they were assembled, while the doors 
about them were close shut, and gave them 
sufficient assurance that he was risen from 
the dead. 

At this meeting Thomas was absent, 
having probably never joined their com- 
pany since their dispersion in the garden, 
where every one's fears prompted him to 
consult his own safety. At his return they 
told him that the Lord had appeared to 
them ; but he obstinately refused to give 
credit to what they said, or believe that it 
was really he, presuming it rather a spectre 
or apparition, unless he might see the very 
print of the nails, and feel the wounds in 
his hands and side. 

But our compassionate Saviour would 
not take the least notice of his perverse 
obstinacy, but on that day seven-night 
came again to them, as they were solemnly 
met at their devotions, and calling to Tho- 
mas, bade him look upon his hands, put 
his fingers into the prints of the nails, and 
thrust his hand into his side, to satisfy his 
faith by demonstration from the senses. 
Thomas was soon convinced of his error 
and obstinacy, confessing that he now ac- 
knowledged him to be his Lord and Mas- 
ter, saying, My Lord and my God. Our 
Lord answered, that it was happy for him 
he believed the testimony of his own 
senses ; but that it would have been more 
commendable in him to have believed with- 
out seeing, because it was foretold that the 
Son of God should burst the chains of 
death, and rise again from the dead. 

CHAP. II. 

The Transactions of St. Thomas, from the 
Ascension of the Son of God to his Death. 

UR great Redeemer having, accord- 
ing to promise before his ascension, 



THE APOSTLES. 

poured an extraordinary effusion of the 
Holy Ghost upon his disciples, to qualify 
them for the great work of preaching the 
gospel, St. Thomas, as well as the rest, 
preached the gospel in several parts of 
J udea ; and, after the dispersion of the 
Christian church in Jerusalem, repaired 
into Parthia, the province assigned him 
for his ministry. After which, as Sem- 
pronius and others inform us, he preached 
the gospel to the Mecles, Persians, Carmani- 
ans, Hyrcani, Bactrians, and the neigh- 
bouring nations. During his preaching 
in Persia, he is said to have met with the 
Magi, or wise men, who had taken that long 
journey at our Saviour's birth to worship 
him ; whom he baptized, and took with 
him as his companions and assistants in 
propagating the gospel. 

Leaving Persia, he travelled into Ethio- 
pia, preaching the glad tidings of the gos- 
pel, healing their sick, and working other 
miracles, to prove he had his commission 
from on high. And after travelling through 
these countries, he entered India. 

When the Portuguese first visited these 
countries after their discovery of a passage 
by the Cape of Good Hope, they received 
the following particulars, partly from con- 
stant and ^incontroverted traditions pre- 
served by the Christians in those parts ; 
namely, that St. Thomas came first to So- 
cotora, an island in the Arabian Sea, and 
then to Cranganor, where having convert- 
ed many from the error of their ways, he 
travelled farther into the East; and, hav- 
ing successfully preached the gospel, re- 
turned back to the kingdom of Coroman- 
del, where, at Maliapour, the metropolis of 
that kingdom, not far from the mouth of 
the Ganges, he began to erect a place for 
divine worship, till prohibited by the idola- 
trous priests, and Sagamo, prince of that 
country. But after performing several mi- 
racles, 




THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



375 



racles, the work was suffered to proceed, 
and Sagamo himself embraced the Chris- 
tian faith, whose example was soon follow- 
ed by great numbers of his friends and 
subjects. 

This remarkable success alarmed the 
Bramins, who plainly perceived that their 
religion would soon be extirpated, unless 
some method could be found of putting a 
stop to the progress of Christianity ; and 
therefore resolved to put the apostle to 
death. At a small distance from the city 
was a tomb, whither St. Thomas often re- 
tired for private devotions. Hither the 
Bramins and their armed followers pursued 
him ; and, while he was at prayer, they 
first shot at him with a shower of darts, 
after which one of the priests ran him 
through with a lance. 



His body was taken up by his disciples, 
and buried in the church he had lately 
erected, and which was afterwards im- 
proved into a fabric of great magnifi- 
cence. 

St. Chrysostom says, that St. Thomas, 
who at first was the weakest and most in- 
credulous of all the apostles, became, 
through Christ's condescending to satisfy 
his scruples, and the power of the divine 
grace, the most active and invincible of 
them all ; travelling over most parts of the 
world, and living without fear in the midst 
of barbarous nations, through the efficacy 
of that almighty arm, which can give 
power to the faint, and to them that have 
no might, and thus make the weakest ves- 
sels to perform acts of the greatest diffi- 
culty and moment. 



SAINT JAMES THE LESS. 



~WT has been doubted by some whether 
this was the same with that St. James 
who was afterwards bishop of Jerusalem, 
two of this name being mentioned in the 
sacred writings, namely, St. James the 
Great, and St. James the Less, both apos- 
tles. The ancients mention a third, sur- 
named the Just, which they will have to 
be distinct from the former, and bishop of 
Jerusalem. But this opinion is built on a 
sandy foundation, for nothing is plainer 
than that St. James the apostle (whom St. 
Paul calls oar Lord's brother, and reckons, 
with Peter and John, one of the pillars of 
the church) was the same who presided 
among the apostles, doubtless by virtue of 
his apostolical office, and determined the 
causes in the synod of Jerusalem. It is 
reasonable to think that he was the son of 



Joseph, afterwards the husband of Mary, 
by his first wife, whom St. Jerom styles 
Escha ; and adds, that she was the daugh- 
ter of Aggi, brother to Zacharias, the fa- 
ther of John the Baptist. Hence he was 
reputed our Lord's brother. We find in- 
deed several mentioned as the brethren of 
our Saviour, in the evangelical history; 
but in what sense was greatly controverted 
by the ancients. St. Jerom, St. Chrysos- 
tom, and some others, will have them to 
be so called, from their being the sons of 
Mary, cousin-german, or (according to the 
Hebrew idiom) sister, to the Virgin Mary, 

But Eusebius, Epiphanius, and many 
others, tell us, they were the children of 
Joseph by a former wife. And this seems 
to be more natural, and best agrees with 
what the evangelists say of them, when 

they 



376 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



they enumerate the questions of the Jews, 
evidently implying their astonishment, that 
a person descended from, and related to, 
not the opulent and the mighty, but those 
of a humble sphere, as his parents and 
brethren were known to be, should possess 
such extraordinary endowments. The Jews 
looked for a Messiah invested with all the 
pomp and splendour of an earthly poten- 
tate ; well then might they ask, when they 
beheld the display of his power, Whence 
then hath this man these things ? 

After the resurrection, he was honoured 
with the particular appearance of our 
Lord to him, which, though passed over 
in silence b}^ the evangelists, is recorded by 
St. Paul. 

Some time after this appearance, he was 
chosen bishop of Jerusalem, and preferred 
before all the rest for his near relation to 
Christ ; for the same reason we find Simon 
chosen to be his immediate successor in 
that see, because, after St. James, he was 
our Lord's next kinsman ; a consideration 
that made Peter and the two sons of Zebe- 
dee, though they had been peculiarly ho- 
noured by our Saviour, not to contend for 
this high and honourable station, but freely 
chose James bishop of Jerusalem . 

When St. Paul came to Jerusalem after 
his conversion, he applied to St. James, 
and was by him honoured with the right- 
hand of fellowship. And it was to St. 
James that Peter sent the news of his mi- 
raculous deliverance out of prison. Go, 
said he, shew these things unto James, and to 
the brethren ; that is, to the whole church, 
especially to St. James the pastor of it. 

He performed every part of his duty 
with all possible care and industry, omit- 
ting no particular necessary to be observed 
by a diligent and faithful guide of souls ; 
strengthening the weak, instructing the ig- 
norant, reducing the erroneous, reproving 



the obstinate; and the constancy of his 
sermons conquering the stubbornness of 
that perverse and refractory generation he 
had to deal with, many of the nobler and 
richer sort being persuaded to embrace the 
Christian faith. 

But a person so careful, so successful in 
his charge, could not fail of exciting the 
spite and malice of his enemies ; a sort of 
men to whom the apostle has given too 
true a character, that they please not God, 
and are contrary to all men. They were 
vexed to see St. Paul had escaped their 
hands by appealing unto Cesar, and there- 
fore turned their fury against St. James ; 
but being unable to effect their design un- 
der the government of Festus, they deter- 
mined to attempt it under the procurator- 
ship of Albinus his successor ; Ananus the 
Younger, of the sect of the Sadducees, 
being high-priest. 

In order to this, a council was summoned, 
and the apostle, with others, arraigned 
and condemned as violators of the law. 
But that the action might appear more 
plausible and popular, the Scribes and Pha- 
risees, masters in the art of dissimulation, 
endeavoured to ensnare him ; and, at their 
first coming, told him that they had all 
placed the greatest confidence in him; that 
the whole nation, as well as they, gave him 
the title of a just man, and one who was 
no respecter of persons ; that they there- 
fore desired he would correct the error and 
false opinion the people had conceived of 
Jesus, whom they considered as the Mes- 
siah, and take this opportunity, of the uni- 
versal confluence to the paschal solemnity, 
to set them right in their opinions in this 
particular, and would go with them to the 
top of the temple, where he might be seen 
and heard by all. 

The apostle readily consented, and, be- 
ing advantageously placed on a pinnacle 

of 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



of the temple, they addressed him in the 
following manner : " Tell us, for we have 
all the reason in the world to believe, that 
the people are thus generally led away 
with the doctrine of Jesus who was cruci- 
fied ; tell us, what is the instruction of the 
crucified Jesus?" To which the apostle 
answered, with an audible voice, " Why 
do you inquire of Jesus the Son of man ? 
He sits in heaven, at the right hand of the 
Majesty on high, and will come again in 
the clouds of heaven." The people below 
hearing this, glorified the blessed Jesus, and 
openly proclaimed, Hosanna to the Son 
of David ! 

The Scribes and Pharisees now perceived 
that they had acted foolishly ; that instead 
of altering, they had confirmed the people 
in their belief ; and that there was no way 
left but to dispatch him immediately, in or- 
der to warn others by his sufferings, not to 
believe in Jesus of Nazareth. Accordingly 
they suddenly cried out, That James him- 
self was seduced, and become an impostor; 
and they immediately threw him from the 
pinnacle on which he stood, into the court 
below ; but not being killed on the spot, he 
recovered himself so far as to rise on his 
knees, and pray fervently to Heaven for his 
murderers. But malice is too diabolical to 
be pacified with kindness, or satisfied with 
cruelty; accordingly, his enemies, vexed 
that they had not fully accomplished their 
work, poured a shower of stones upon him, 
while he was imploring; their forgiveness at 
the throne of grace; and one of them, dis- 
satisfied with this cruel treatment, put an 
end to his misery with a fuller's club. 

Thus did this great and good man finish 
his course, in the ninety-sixth year of his 
age, and about twenty-four years after our 
blessed Saviour's ascension into heaven. 
His death was lamented by all good men, 
even by the sober and just persons among j 



377 

the Jews themselves, as Josephus himself 
confesses. 

He was a man of exemplary piety and 
devotion, educated under the strictest rules 
and institutions of religion. Prayer was 
his constant business and delight; he seems 
as it were to have lived upon it, and con- 
tinually to have had his conversation in 
heaven ; and he who has told us, that the 
prayer of a righteous man availeth much, 
found it so by his own experience, Heaven 
lending a more immediate ear to his peti- 
tions ; so that in a time of remarkable 
drought, on his praying for rain, the clouds 
melted into fruitful showers. 

Nor was his charity towards men less 
than his piety towards God : he did good 
to all, watched diligently over the souls of 
men, and studied to advance their eternal 
welfare. He was of a remarkably meek 
and humble temper, honouring what was 
excellent in others, and concealing what 
was valuable in himself. Neither the emi- 
nence of his relation to the blessed Jesus, 
nor the dignity of the place he so worthily 
filled, could induce him to entertain lofty 
thoughts of himself above the rest of his 
brethren ; on the contrary, he strove to 
conceal whatever might place him in a 
higher rank than the other disciples of the 
Lord of glory. Though he was a relative 
to the Redeemer of mankind, he styles 
himself only the servant of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, not so much as mentioning his be- 
ing an apostle. 

His temperance was admirable, wholly 
abstaining from flesh, drinking neither wine 
nor strong- drink, and never using; the bath. 
He lived indeed after the strictest rules of 
the Nazarite order ; and as the mitre he 
wore on his head evinced his priesthood, 
which was rather from Melchizedec than 
Aaron, so he never shaved his head, or 
[used any ointments; his habit and diet, 
5 C and 



378 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



and the great severity of his life, shewed 
him to belong to the Nazarite institution, 
to which he was consecrated even from his 
mother's womb. In short, he w T as a man 
of so divine a temper, that he was at once 
the love and wonder of his age ; and from 
the reputation of his holy and religious life, 
he was st}ded James the Just. 

He wrote only one epistle, probably not 
long before his martyrdom, as appears 
from some passages in it, relating to the 
near approach of the destruction of the 
Jews. He directed it to the Jewish con- 
verts, dispersed up and down those East- 
ern countries, to comfort them under their 
sufferings, and confirm them against error. 
He saw a great degeneracy and declension 



of manners coming on; and that the purih 
of the Christian faith began to be under- 
mined by the doctrines and practices of 
the Gnostics, who, under pretence of zeal 
for the legal rites, generally mixed them- 
selves with the Jews ; he beheld libertin- 
ism flowing in apace, and the way to hea- 
ven apparently made soft and easy by men, 
who declaimed against good works as use- 
less and unnecessary, and wrested the 
scriptures to subserve the purposes of their 
idle and corrupt affections : our apostle 
therefore recommends that faith which 
works by love, purines the heart, and brings 
forth obedience to the will of God, as the 
only faith which will instrumentally save 
the soul from eternal death. 



SAINT SIMON, 

ST. Simon, in the catalogue of the apos- 
^ ties, is styled Simon the Canaanite ; 
whence some conjecture he was bora in 
Cana of Galilee, and others will have him 
to have been the bridegroom mentioned by 
St. John, at whose marriage our blessed 
Saviour turned the water into wine. But 
this word has no relation to his country, or 
the place of his nativity, being derived 
from the Hebrew word kana, which signi- 
fies zeal, and denotes a warm and sprightly 
temper. What some of the evangelists 
therefore call Canaanite, others, rendering 
the Hebrew by the Greek word, style him 
Zealot; not so much from his great zeal, 
his ardent affection to his Master, and his 
desire of advancing his religion in the 
world, as from his warm active temper, 
and zealous forwardness in some particular 
sect of religion before his coming to our 
Saviour. 

In order to understand this the better, it 



THE ZEALOT. 

will be necessary to observe, that as there 
were several sects and parties among the 
Jews, so there was one, either a distinct 
sect, or at least a branch of the Pharisees, 
called the sect of the Zealots. This sect 
of the Zealots took upon them to execute 
punishments in extraordinary cases ; and 
that not only by the connivance, but with 
the permission, both of the rulers and peo- 
ple, till, in process of time, their zeal de- 
generated into all kinds of licentiousness 
and wild extravagance, and they not only 
became the pests of the commonwealth at 
home, but opened the door for the Ro- 
mans to break in upon them, to their final 
and irrevocable ruin. They were conti- 
nually prompting the people to throw off 
the Roman yoke, and assert their natural 
liberty; taking care, when they had thrown 
all things into confusion, to make their 
own advantage of the tumult. Josephus 
gives a large account of them, and every 

where 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



379 



where bewails them as the great plague of 
the nation. 

Many attempts were made, especially 
by Annas the high-priest, to reduce them 
to order, and oblige them to observe the 
rules of sobriety ; but all were in vain. 
They continued their violent proceedings, 
and, joining with the Idumeans, committed 
every kind of outrage. They broke into 
the sanctuary, slew the priests themselves 
before the altar, and filled the streets of 
Jerusalem with tumults, rapine, and blood. 
Nay, when Jerusalem was closely besieged 
by the Roman army, they continued their 
detestable proceedings, creating fresh tu- 
mults and factions, and were indeed the 
principal cause of the ill success of the 
Jews in that fatal war. 

This is a true account of the sect of the 
Zealots ; though whatever St. Simon was 
before, we have no reason to suspect but 
after his conversion he was very zealous for 
the honour of his Master, and considered 
all those who were enemies to Christ as 
enemies to himself, however near they 
might be to him in any natural relation. 
And as he was very exact in all the prac- 
tical duties of the Christian religion, so he 
showed a very serious and pious indigna- 



tion towards those who professed religion, 
and a faith in Christ, with their mouths, 
but dishonoured their sacred profession 
by their irregular and vicious lives ; as 
some of the first professing Christians really 
did. 

St. Simon continued in communion with 
the rest of the apostles and disciples at Je- 
rusalem ; and at the feast of Pentecost re- 
ceived the same miraculous gifts of the 
Holy Ghost; so that, as he was qualified 
with the rest of the brethren for the aposto- 
lical office, in propagating the gospel of 
the Son of God, we cannot doubt of his ex- 
ercising his gifts with the same zeal and 
fidelity, though in what part of the world 
is uncertain. Some say he went into 
Egypt, Cyrene, and Africa, preaching the 
gospel to the inhabitants of those remote 
and barbarous countries. And others add, 
that after he had passed through those 
burning wastes, he took ship, and visited 
the frozen regions of the north, preaching 
the gospel to the inhabitants of the west- 
ern parts ; where, having converted great 
multitudes, and sustained the greatest hard- 
ships and persecutions, he was at last cru- 
cified, and buried ; but the place where, is 
unknown. 



SAINT JUDE. 



npHIS apostle is mentioned by three se- 
-™- veral names in the evangelical his- 
tory, namely, Jude or Judas, Thaddeus, 
and Lebbeus. 

He was brother to St. James the Less, 
afterwards bishop of Jerusalem, being the 
son of Joseph, the reputed father of Christ, 
by a former wife. It is not known when 
or by what means he became a disciple of 



our blessed Saviour, nothing being said of 
him till we find him in the catalogue of 
the twelve apostles ; nor afterwards, till 
Christ's last supper, when, discoursing with 
them about his departure, and comforting 
them with a promise that he would re- 
turn to them again, (meaning after his re- 
surrection,) and that the world should see 
him no more, though they should see him, 

our 



380 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



our apostle said to his Master, Lord, how is 
it that thou wilt manifest thyself to its, and not 
unto the world? Paulinus tells us, that 
the province which fell to the share of St. 
Jude, in the apostolic division of the pro- 
vinces, was Libya ; but he does not tell us 
whether it was the Cyrenean Libya, which 
is thought to have received the gospel from 
St. Mark, or the more southern parts of 
Africa. But however that be, in his first 
setting out to preach the gospel, he travel- 
led up and down Judea and Galilee, then 
through Samaria into Idumea, and to the 
cities of Arabia and the neighbouring 
countries, and afterwards to Syria and Me- 
sopotamia. Nicephorus adds, that he came 
at last to Edessa, where Abagarus govern- 
ed, and where Thaddeus, one of the se- 
venty, had already sown the seeds of the 
gospel. Here he perfected what the other 
had begun ; and having by his sermons 
and miracles established the religion of Je- 
sus, he died in peace. But others say that 
he was slain at Berytus, and honourably 
buried there. The writers of the Latin 
church are unanimous in declaring that he 
travelled into Persia, where, after great suc- 
cess in his apostolic ministry for many 
years, he was at last, for his freely and 
openly reproving the superstitious rites 



and customs of the Magi, cruelly put to 
death. 

St. Jude left only one epistle, which is 
placed the last of those seven styled Ca- 
tholic, in the sacred canon. It has no 
particular inscription, as the other six have, 
but it is thought to have been primarily in- 
tended for the Christian Jews, in their seve- 
ral dispersions, as St. Peter's epistles were. 
In it he tells them, "that he at first intended 
to write to them in general of the common 
salvation, and establish and confirm them 
in it ; but seeing the doctrine of Christ at- 
tacked on every side by seducers, he con- 
ceived it more necessary to spend his time 
in exhorting them to fight manfully in de- 
fence of the faith once delivered to the saints, 
and oppose the false teachers who laboured 
so indefatigably to corrupt it/ 

It was some time before this epistle was 
generally received in the church. The 
author, indeed, like St. James, St. John, 
and sometimes St. Paul himself, does not 
call himself an apostle, styling himself only 
the servant of Christ. But he has added 
what is equivalent, Jude the brother of James, 
a character that can belong to no one but 
our apostle. And surely the humility of a 
follower of Jesus should be no objection 
against his writings. 



SAINT MATTHIAS. 



A S Matthias was not an apostle of the 
first election, immediately called and 
chosen by the Son of God, himself, it can- 
not be expected that any account of him 
can be found in the evangelical history. 
He was one of our Lord's disciples, proba- 
bly one of the seventy : he had attended 
on him the whole time of his public mi- 
nistry, and after his death was elected to 



the apostleship, to supply the place of Ju- 
das, who, after betraying his great Lord 
and Master, laid violent hands on himself. 

The defection of Judas having made a 
vacancy in the family of the apostles, the 
first thing they did, after their retnrn from 
mount Olivet, when their great Master as- 
cended to the throne of his glory, was to 
fill it up with a proper person. 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



381 



Accordingly two persons were propos- 
3d, Joseph, called Barsabas, and Matthias, 
both duly qualified for the important of- 
fice. The method of election was by lots, 
a way common both among the Jews and 
Gentiles for determining doubtful and dif- 
ficult cases, especially in choosing judges 
or magistrates. And this course seems to 
have been taken by the apostles, because 
the Holy Ghost was not yet fully given, 
by whose immediate dictates and inspi- 
rations they were afterwards chiefly guid- 
ed. The prayer being ended, the lots 
were drawn; by which it appeared that 
Matthias was the person, and he was ac- 
cordingly numbered among the twelve 
apostles. 

Not long after this election, the promis- 
ed powers of the Holy Ghost were confer- 
red upon the apostles, to qualify them for 
that great and difficult employment upon 
which they were sent, namely, the esta- 



blishing the holy religion of the Son of 
God among the children of men. 

St. Matthias spent the first year of his 
ministry in Judea, where he reaped a very 
considerable harvest of souls, and then tra- 
velled into different parts of the world, to 
publish the glad tidings of salvation to a 
people who had never before heard of a 
Saviour; but the particular parts he visited 
are not certainly known. 

It is uncertain by what kind of death he 
left the regions of mortality, and sealed the 
truth of the gospel he had so assiduously 
preached, with his blood. Dorotheus says, 
he finished his course at Sebastople, and 
was buried there near the temple of the 
sun. An ancient Martyrology reports him 
to have been seized by the Jews, and as a 
blasphemer to have been stoned, and then 
beheaded. But the Greek offices, sup- 
ported herein by several ancient breviaries, 
1 tell us that he was crucified. 



SAINT MARK. 



SIT. Mark was descended from Jewish 
^ parents, and of the tribe of Levi. Nor 
was it uncommon among the Jews to 
change their names on some remarkable 
revolution or accident of life, or when 
they intended to travel into any of the Eu- 
ropean provinces of the Roman empire. 
The ancients generally considered him as 
one of the seventy disciples ; and Epipha- 
nius expressly tells us that he was one of 
those who, taking exception at our Lord's 
discourse of eating his Jtesh and drinking his 
blood, went back and walked no more with him. 
But there appears no manner of founda- 
tion for these opinions, nor likewise for 
that of Nicephorus, y/ho will have him to 
be the son of Peter's sister. 



Eusebius tells us, that St. Mark was sent 
into Egypt by St. Peter to preach the gos- 
pel, and accordingly planted a church in 
Alexandria, the metropolis of it ; and his 
success was so very remarkable, that he 
converted multitudes both of men and wo- 
men ; persuading them not only to em- 
brace the Christian religion, but also a life 
of more than ordinary strictness. 

St. Mark did not confine himself to 
Alexandria, and the oriental parts of Egypt, 
but removed westward to Lybia, passing- 
through the countries of Marmacia, Pen- 
tapolis, and others adjacent, where, though 
the people were both barbarous in their 
manners and idolatrous in their worship, 
yet by his preaching and miracles he pre- 

5 D vailed 



382 



THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



vailed on them to embrace the tenets of 
the gospel ; nor did he leave them till he 
had confirmed them in the faith. 

After this long tour, he returned to Alex- 
andria, where he preached with the great- 
est freedom, ordered and disposed of the 
affairs of the church, and wisely provided 
for its prosperity, by constituting governors 
and pastors of it. But the restless enemy 
of the souls of men would not suffer our 
apostle to continue in peace and quietness ; 
for while he was assiduously labouring in 
the vineyard of his Master, the idolatrous 
inhabitants, about the time of Easter, when 
they were celebrating the solemnities of 
Serapis, tumultuously entered the church, 
forced St. Mark, then performing divine 
service, from thence ; and, binding his 
feet with cords, dragged him through the 
streets, and over the most craggy places, 
to the Bucelus, a precipice near the sea, 
leaving him there in a lonesome prison 
for that night ; but his great and beloved 
Master appeared to him in a vison, com- 
forting and encouraging his soul under 
the ruins of his shattered body. The next 
morning early the tragedy began afresh, 
for they dragged him about in the same 
cruel and barbarous manner, till he ex- 
pired. But their malice did not end with 
his death ; they burnt his mangled body, 
after they had so inhumanly deprived it 
of life : but the Christians, after the horrid 
tragedy was over, gathered his bones and 
ashes, and decently interred them near the 
place where he used to preach. His re- 



mains were afterwards, with great pomp, 
removed from Alexandria to Venice, where 
they were religiously honoured, and he 
was adopted the titular saint and patron 
of that state. 

It is said he suffered martyrdom on the 
25th of April, but the year is not abso- 
lutely known : the most probable opinion 
however is, that it happened about the end 
of Nero's reign. 

His Gospel, the only writing he left be- 
hind him, was written at the entreaty and 
earnest desire of the converts at Rome, 
who, not content with having heard St. 
Peter preach, pressed St. Mark, his fellow- 
disciple, to commit to writing an historical 
account of what he had delivered to them, 
which he performed with equal faithful- 
ness and brevity ; and being perused and 
approved of by St. Peter, it was command- 
ed to be publicly read in their assemblies. 
It was frequently styled St. Peter's Gospel, 
not because he dictated it to St. Mark, 
but because the latter composed it in the 
same manner as St. Peter usually deliver- 
ed his discourses to the people. And this 
is probably the reason of what St. Chrysos- 
tom observes, that in his style of expres- 
sion he delights to imitate St. Peter, re- 
presenting a great deal in a few words. 
The remarkable impartiality he observes in 
all his relations is plain from hence, that 
so far from concealing the shameful lapse 
and denial of Peter, he describes it with 
more aggravating circumstances than any 
of the other evangelists. 



SAINT 



( 383 ) 



SAINT LUKE. 



THIS disciple of the blessed Jesus was 
born at Antioch, the metropolis of 
Syria, a city celebrated by the greatest wri- 
ters of those times for the pleasantness of its 
situation, the fertility of its soil, the riches 
of its commerce, the wisdom of its senate, 
and the civility and politeness of its inha- 
bitants. It was eminent for schools of 
learning, which produced the most renown- 
ed masters in the arts and sciences. So 
that being born, as it were, in the lap of the 
muses, he could not well fail of acquiring 
an ingenuous and liberal education. But 
he was not contented with the learning of 
his own country ; he travelled for improve- 
ment into several parts of Greece and 
Egypt, and became particularly skilled in 
physic, which he made his profession. 

But those who would, from this parti- 
lar, infer the quality of his birth and for- 
tune, forget that the healing art was in 
those early times generally practised by 
servants ; and hence Grotius is of opinion, 
that St. Luke was carried to Rome, and 
lived there a servant to some noble family, 
in quality of plrysician ; but after obtain- 
ing his freedom he returned into his own 
country, and probably continued his pro- 
fession till his death, it being so highly con- 
sistent with, and in many cases subservient 
to, the care of souls. 

He was also famous for his skill in an- 
other art, namely painting, as appears from 
an ancient inscription found in a vault 
near the church of St. Maria de Via Lata, 
at Rome, supposed to have been the place 
where St. Paul dwelt, which mentions a 
picture of the blessed Virgin ; Una ex vii 
ab Luca depictis, being one of the seven 
painted by St. Luke. 



St. Luke was a Jewish proselyte ; but 
at what time he became a Christian is un- 
certain. It is the opinion of some, from 
the introduction to his Gospel, that he had 
the facts from the reports of others who 
w r ere eye-witnesses, and suppose him to 
have been converted by St. Paul; and that 
he learned the history of his Gospel from 
the conversation of that apostle, and wrote 
it under his direction ; and that when St. 
Paul, in one of his epistles, says, according 
to my Gospel, he means this of St. Luke, 
which he styled his, from the great share 
he had in the composition of it. 

On the other hand, those who hold that 
he wrote his Gospel from his own personal 
knowledge, observe, that he could not re- 
ceive it from St. Paul, as an eye-witness of 
the matters contained in it, because all those 
matters were transacted before his conver- 
sion ; and that he never saw our Lord be- 
fore he appeared to him on his journey to 
Damascus, which was some time after he 
ascended into heaven. Consequently, when 
St. Paul says, according to my Gospel, he 
means no more than that gospel in general 
which he preached ; the whole preaching 
of the apostles being styled the gospel. 

But however this be, St. Luke became 
the inseparable companion of St. Paul in 
all his travels, and his constant fellow- 
labourer in the work of the ministry. This 
endeared him to that apostle, who seems 
delighted with owning him for his fellow- 
labourer ; and in calling him the beloved 
physician, and the brother whose praise is in 
the gospel. 

St. Luke wrote two books for the use of 
the church, his Gospel, and the Acts of the 

Apostles • 



384 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



Apostles ; both which he dedicated to 
Theophilus, which many of the ancients 
supposed to be a feigned name, denoting 
a lover of God, a title common to all sin- 
cere Christians. The others think it was a 
real person, because the title of most excel- 
lent is attributed to him ; the usual title 
and form of address in those times to 
princes and great men. 

His Gospel contains the principal trans- 
actions of our Lord's life ; and the parti- 
culars omitted by him are in general of 
less importance than those of the other 
evangelists. 

With regard to the Acts of the Apostles, 
written by St. Luke, the work was doubt- 
less performed at Rome, about the time of 
St. Paul's residing; there, with which he 
concludes his history. It contains the 
actions, and sometimes the sufferings, of 
the principal apostles, especially St. Paul, 
whose activity in the cause of Christ made 



him bear a great part in the labours of his 
Master ; and St. Luke being his constant 
attendant, an eye-witness of the whole car- 
riage of his life, and privy to his most in- 
timate transactions, was consequently ca- 
pable of giving a more full and satisfactory 
account of them. Among other things, he 
enumerates the great miracles the apostles 
did in confirmation of their doctrine. 

In both these treatises his manner of 
writing is exact and accurate ; his style 
noble and elegant, sublime and lofty, and 
yet clear and perspicuous, flowing with an 
easy and natural grace and sweetness, ad- 
mirabfy adapted to an historical design. In 
short, as an historian he was faithful in his 
relations, and elegant in his writings ; as a 
minister, careful and diligent for the good 
of souls ; as a Christian, devout and pious ; 
and, to crown all the rest, laid down his 
life in testimony of the gospel he had both 
preached and published to the world. 



SAINT BARNABAS. 



T. Barnabas was at first called Joses, a 
softer termination generally given by 
the Greeks to Joseph. His fellow-disci- 
ples added the name of Barnabas, as sig- 
nificant of some extraordinary property in 
him. St. Luke interprets it the son of con- 
solation, from his being ever ready to ad- 
minister to the afflicted, both by word and 
action. 

He was a descendant of the tribe of Levi, 
of a family removed out of Juclea, and 
settled in the isle of Cyprus, where they 
had purchased an estate, as the Levites 
might do, out of their own country. His 
parents, finding him of a promising genius 
and disposition, placed him in one of the 



schools of Jerusalem, under the tuition of 
Gamaliel, St. Paul's master ; an incident 
which, in all probability, laid the first foun- 
dation for that intimacy that afterwards 
subsisted between these two eminent ser- 
vants of the blessed Jesus. 

The first mention we find of St. Barna- 
bas, in the holy scripture, is the record of 
that great and worthy service he did the 
church of Christ, by succouring it with the 
sale of his patrimony in Cyprus, the whole 
price of which he laid at the apostles' feet 
to be put in the common stock, and dis- 
posed of as they should think fit among 
the indigent followers of the holy Jesus. 
This worthy example was followed by 




THE LIVES OF 

those who were blessed with temporal 
good ; none kept their plenty to them- 
selves, but turned their houses and lands 
into money, and devoted it to the common 
use of the church. St. Barnabas is, indeed, 
mentioned as selling the most valuable 
estate on this occasion ; or being the most 
forward and ready to begin a common 
stock, and set others a laudable pattern of 
charity and benevolence. 

And now St. Barnabas became consider- 
able in the ministry and government of 
the church ; for we find that St. Paul, com- 
ing to Jerusalem three years after his con- 
version, and not readily procuring admit- 
tance into the church, because he had 
been so grievous a persecutor of it, and 
might still be suspected of a design to be- 
tray it, addressed himself to Barnabas, a 
leading man among the Christians, and 
one that had personal knowledge of him. 
He accordingly introduced him to Peter 
and James, and satisfied them of the sin- 
cerity of his conversion, and in what a 
miraculous manner it was brought about. 
This recommendation carried so much 
weight with it, that Paul was not only re- 
ceived into the communion of the apostles, 
but taken into Peter's house, and abode 
with him fifteen days, Gal. i. 18. 

About four or five years after this, the 
agreeable news was brought to Jerusalem, 
that several of their body, who had been 
driven out of Judea by the persecutions 
raised about St. Stephen, had preached at 
Antioch with such success, that a great 
number, both of Jews and proselytes, em- 
braced Christianity; and were desirous that 
some of the apostles would come down and 
visit them. This request was immediately 
granted, and Barnabas was deputed to set- 
tle the new plantation. Being himself a 
good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of 
faith, his charitable deeds accompanying 



THE APOSTLES. 385 

his discourses, and his pious life exempli- 
fying his sound doctrine, the people were 
greatly influenced by him, and very con- 
siderable additions were made to the 
Christian church. But there being too 
large a field for one labourer, he went to 
fetch Saul from Tarsus, who came back 
with him to Antioch, and assisted him a 
whole year in establishing that church. 
Their labours were prosperous ; their as- 
semblies were crowded ; and the disciples, 
who before this were called am on 2; them- 
selves, brethren, believers, elect, and by their 
enemies, Nazarenes and Galileans, were now 
called Christians first at Antioch. 

When the apostles bad fulfilled their 
charitable embassy, and stayed some time 
at Jerusalem to see the good effects of it, 
they returned again to Antioch, bringing 
with them John, whose surname was Mark, 
the son of Mary, sister to Barnabas, and 
at whose house the disciples found both se- 
curity for their persons, and conveniency 
for the solemnities of their worship. But 
soon after the apostles returned to Antioch, 
an express relation was made to the church, 
by the mouth of one of the prophets who 
ministered there, that Barnabas and Saul 
should be set apart for an extraordinary 
work, unto which the Holy Ghost had 
appointed them. Upon this declaration, 
the church set apart a day for a solemn 
mission : after devout prayer and fasting, 
they laid their hands upon them, and or- 
dained them to their new work ; which 
was, to travel over certain countries, and 
preach the gospel to the Gentiles. From 
this joint commission, Barnabas obtained 
the name of an apostle, not only among 
later writers of the church, but with St. 
Paul himself, as we find in the history of 
the acts of the apostles. 

Paul and Barnabas being thus solemnly 
appointed the apostles of the Gentiles, en- 

5 E tered 



386 



THE LIVES OL' THE APOSTLES. 



tered upon their province, taking with 
them John Mark for their minister or dea- 
con, who assisted them in many ecclesias- 
tical offices, particularly in taking care of 
the poor. 

The first city they visited after their de- 
parture from Antioch was Seleucia, a city 
of Syria, adjoining to the sea; from whence 
they sailed for the island of Cyprus, the 
native place of St. Barnabas, and arrived 
at Salamis, a port formerly remarkable for 
its trade. Here they boldly preached the 
doctrines of the gospel in the synagogues 
of the Jews ; and from thence travelled to 
Paphos, the capital of the island, and fa- 
mous for a temple dedicated to Venus, the 
titular goddess of Cyprus. Here their 
preaching was attended with remarkable 
success ; Sergius Paulus, the proconsul, 
being, among others, converted to the 
Christian faith. 

Leaving Cyprus, they crossed the sea to 
preach in Pamphylia, where their deacon 
John, to the great grief of his uncle Barna- 
bas, left them, and returned to Jerusalem ; 
either tired with continual travels, or dis- 
couraged at the unavoidable clangers and 
difficulties which experience had sufficient- 
ly informed him would constantly attend 
the first preachers of the gospel, from hard- 
ened Jews and idolatrous Gentiles. 

Soon after their arrival at Lystra, Paul 
cured a man who had been lame from his 
mother's womb ; which so astonished the 
inhabitants, that they believed them to be 
gods, who had visited the world in the 
forms of men. Barnabas they treated as 
Jupiter, their sovereign deity, either be- 
cause of his age, or the gravity and come- 
liness of his person ; for all the writers of 
antiquity represent him as a person of 
venerable aspect, and a majestic presence. 
But the apostles, with the greatest humi- 
lity, declared themselves to be but mortal : 



and the inconstant populace soon satisfied 
themselves of the truth of what they had 
asserted ; for at the persuasion of their in- 
defatigable persecutors, who followed them 
thither also, they made an assault upon 
them, and stoned Paul till they left him 
for dead. But supported by an invisible 
power from on high, he soon recovered his 
spirits and strength, and the apostles im- 
mediately departed for Derbe. Soon after 
their arrival, they again applied them- 
selves to the work of the ministry, and 
converted many to the religion of the 
blessed Jesus. 

From Derbe they returned back to Lys- 
tra, Iconium, and Antioch, in Pisidia, con- 
firming the souls of the disciples, and exhort- 
ing them to continue in the faith ; and that 
we must through much tribulation enter into 
the kingdom of God, Acts xiv. 22. After a 
short stay, they again visited the churches 
of Pamphylia, Perga, and Attala, where 
they took ship, and sailed to Antioch in 
Syria, the place from whence they first set 
out. Soon after their arrival they called 
the church of this city together, and gave 
them an account of their travels, and the 
great success with which their preaching 
in the Gentile world had been attended. 

But they had not long continued in this 
city, before their assistance was required to 
compose a difference in the church, occa- 
sioned by some of the Jewish converts, 
who endeavoured to persuade the Gen- 
tiles that they were bound to observe the 
law of Moses, as well as that of Christ, and 
be circumcised as well as baptized. Bar- 
nabas endeavoured to dissuade the zealots 
from pressing such unnecessary observan- 
ces ; but all his endeavours proving inef- 
fectual, he was deputed, with St. Paul and 
others, to the church at Jerusalem, to sub- 
mit the question to be determined there in 
a full assembly. During their stay at Je- 
rusalem 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



387 



rusalem, Mark in all probability reconciled 
himself to Barnabas, and returned with 
him and St. Paul to Antioch, after they 
had succeeded in their business in Jerusa- 
lem, and obtained a decree from the synod 
there, that the Gentile converts should not 
have circumcision and other Mosaic rites 
imposed upon them. 

This determination generally comforted 
and quieted the minds of the Gentiles, but 
it did not prevent the bigoted Jews from 
keeping up a separation from them ; and 
that with so much obstinacy, that when St. 
Peter, some time after, came to Antioch, 
he, for fear of offending them, deviated 
from his former practice, and late speech 
and vote in the synod of Jerusalem, by 
refraining from all kind of communion 
with the Gentiles ; and Barnabas himself, 
though so great and good a man, was in- 
duced, by the authority of his example, to 
commit the same error ; but doubtless, on 
being reproved by St. Paul, they both took 
more courage, and walked according to the 
true liberty and freedom of the gospel. 

Some days after this last occurrence, 
Paul made a proposal to Barnabas, that 
they should repeat their late travels among 
the Gentiles, and see how the churches 
they had planted increased in their num- 
bers, and improved in the doctrines they 
had taught them. Barnabas very readily 
complied with the motion ; but desired 
they might take with them his reconciled 
nephew, John Mark. This, Paul abso- 
lutely refused, because in their former 
voyage Mark had not shewn the con- 
stancy of a faithful minister of Christ, but, 
consulting; his own ease at a dangerous 
juncture, departed from them without leave 
at Pamphylia, and returned to Jerusalem. 
Barnabas still insisted on taking him ; and 



the other continuing as resolutely to oppose 
it, a short debate arose, which terminated 
in a separation, whereby these two holy 
men, who had for several years been com- 
panions in the ministry, and with united 
endeavours propagated the gospel of the 
Son of God, now took different provinces. 
Barnabas, with his kinsman, sailed to his 
own country, Cyprus ; and Paul, accom- 
panied by Silas, travelled to the churches 
of Syria and Cilicia. 

After this separation from St. Paul, the 
sacred writings give us no account of St 
Barnabas ; nor are the ecclesiastical writers 
agreed among themselves with regard to 
the actions of this apostle after his sailing 
for Cyprus. This however seems to be 
certain, that he did not spend the whole 
remainder of his life in that island, but vi- 
sited different parts of the world, preach- 
ing the glad tidings of the gospel, healing 
the sick, and working other miracles 
among the Gentiles. After long and pain- 
ful travels, attended with different degrees 
of success in different places, he returned 
to Cyprus, his native country, where he 
suffered martyrdom, in the following man- 
ner : Certain Jews coming from Syria and 
Salamis, where Barnabas was then preach- 
ing the gospel, being highly exasperated 
at his extraordinary success, fell upon him 
as he was disputing in the synagogue, drag- 
ged him out, and, after the most inhuman 
tortures, stoned him to death. His kins- 
man, John Mark, who was a spectator of 
this barbarous action, privately interred 
his body in a cave, where, it is said, it re- 
mained till the time of the emperor Zeno, 
in the year of Christ 485, when it was dis- 
covered, with St. Matthew's Gospel in He- 
brew, written with his own hand, lying on 
his breast. 



SAINT 



( 388 ) 



SAINT STEPHEN. 



OTH the scriptures and the ancient 
writers are silent with regard to the 
birth, country, and parents of St. Stephen. 
Epiphanius is of opinion, that he was one 
of the seventy disciples : but this is very 
uncertain. Our blessed Saviour appointed 
his seventy disciples to teach the doctrines, 
and preach the glad tidings, of the gospel ; 
but it does not appear that St. Stephen, 
and the six other first deacons, had any 
particular designation, before they were 
chosen for the service of the tables ; and 
therefore St. Stephen could not have been 
one of our Lord's disciples, though he 
might have often followed him, and listen- 
ed to his discourses. 

He was remarkably zealous for the cause 
of religion, and full of the Holy Ghost; 
working many wonderful miracles before 
the people, and pressing them with the 
greatest earnestness to embrace the doc- 
trine of the gospel. 

This highly provoked the Jews ; and 
some of the synagogues of the freed-men 
of Cyrenia, Alexandria, and other places, 
entered into a dispute with him : but being 
unable to resist the wisdom and spirit by 
which he spake, they suborned false wit- 
nesses against him, to testify that they 
heard him blaspheme against Moses and 
against God. Nor did they stop here : 
they stirred up the people by their calum- 
nies ; so that they dragged him before the 
council of the nation, or great Sanhedrim, 
w r here they produced false witnesses against 
him, who deposed that they had heard 
him speak against the temple, and against 
the law, and affirm that Jesus of Nazareth 
would destroy the holy place, and abolish 
the law of Moses. Stephen, supported by 



his own innocence, and an invisible power 
from on high, appeared undaunted in the 
midst of this assembly, and his counte- 
nance shone like that of an angel ; when 
the high-priest asking him what he had to 
offer against the accusations laid to his 
charge, he answered in the following 
manner : 

" Hearken unto me, ye descendants of 
Jacob : The Almighty, whose glory is from 
everlasting, appeared to our father Abra- 
ham, before he sojourned in Charran,even 
while he dwelt in Mesopotamia, command- 
ing him to leave his country and relations, 
and retire into a land which he would shew 
! him. 

"Abraham obeyed the divine mandate 
he left the land of the Chaldeans, and 
pitched his tent in Charran; from whence, 
after his father was dead, he removed into 
Canaan, even the land you now inhabit ; 
but he gave him no inheritance in this 
country, not even so much as to set his 
foot upon. He promised, indeed, he would 
give it him for a possession, which should 
descend to his posterity, though at this 
time he had no child. 

" God also intimated to him, that his 
seed should sojourn in a strange land, the 
people of which should make them bond- 
men, and treat them cruelly four hundred 
years ; after which he would judge that na- 
tion, and bring out his people, who should 
serve him in this place. As an earnest of 
which he gave him the covenant of circum- 
cision, and afterwards a son, whom Abra- 
ham circumcised the eighth day, calling 
his name Isaac; who begat Jacob, and 
Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. 

" But these, moved with envy, sold their 

brother 




THE LIVES OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



389 



brother Joseph into Egypt, where the Al- 
mighty protected him, delivered him from 
all his afflictions, endued him with wisdom, 
and gave him favour in the sight of Pharaoh 
the monarch of Egypt, who made him go- 
vernor both of his house and kingdom. 

" Soon after the exaltation of Joseph, 
the countries of Egypt and Canaan were 
afflicted with a terrible famine, and our fa- 
thers found no sustenance either for them- 
selves or flocks. But as soon as Jacob 
heard the welcome tidings that there was 

O 

corn in Egypt, he sent our fathers thither, 
to purchase bread for the famine of his 
household. And in their second journey 
thither, Joseph made himself known to 
his brethren, and also informed Pharaoh 
of his country and relations. After which 
Joseph's father, with his whole house, con- 
sisting of threescore and ten souls, went 
down into Egypt, where both Jacob and 
our fathers died, and their remains were 
deposited in the sepulchre purchased by 
Abraham of Ephron the Hittite. 

" But as the time for fulfilling the pro- 
mise made to Abraham approached, the 
people multiplied in Egypt, till another 
king arose, who was not acquainted with 
the merits of Joseph, and the great things 
he had done for that country. This prince 
used our fathers with cruelty, and artfully 
attempted to destroy all the male children. 
At this time Moses was born, and being 
exceeding fair, was nourished three months 
in his father's house : but as it was danger- 
ous to conceal him there any longer, he 
was hid among the flags on the bank of 
the river ; when the daughter of Pharaoh 
found him, and educated him as her own 
son. 

" Thus Moses became acquainted with 
all the learning of Egypt, and was mighty 
both in word and deed ; but when he was 
forty years old, he thought proper to visit 



his brethren, the children of Israel ; and 
seeing an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, he 
assisted the suffering person, and slew the 
Egyptian ; supposing that his brethren 
would have been persuaded, that from his 
hand, with the assistance of the Almighty, 
they might expect deliverance : but they 
conceived no hopes of this kind. 

"The next day he again visited them, 
and seeing two of them striving together, 
he endeavoured to make them friends : 
Ye are brethren, said he to them ; why do 
ye injure one another? But he who did 
his neighbour wrong, instead of listening 
to his advice, thrust him away, saying, By 
what authority art thou a judge of our ac- 
tions ? wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the 
Egyptian yesterday ? 

" Moses, at this answer, fled from Egypt, 
and sojourned in the land of Midian, 
where he begat two sons. And at the end 
of forty years, the angel of the Lord ap- 
peared unto him in the wilderness of 
Mount Sinai, out of the middle of a bush 
burning with fire ; a sight which surprised 
Moses ; and as he drew near to view more 
attentively so uncommon a sight, the voice 
of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am 
the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. At 
which Moses trembled, and turned aside 
his face. But the Lord said to him, Put 
of thy shoes from of thy feet, for the place 
whereon thou standest is holy ground. 1 have 
seen the affliction of my people which are in 
Egypt, and I have heard, their groaning, and 
am come to deliver them. And now come, 
I will send thee into Egypt. 

"Thus was that Moses, whom they refused, 
sent by God to be a ruler and deliverer, by 
the hand of the angel who appeared to him 
in the bush. Accordingly he brought them 
out, after he had shewed signs and wonders 
in the land of Egypt, in the Red Sea, and 



390 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



in the wilderness forty years. It is this 
Moses that told our fathers, A Prophet shall 
the Lord your God raise up unto you of your 
brethren, like unto me. Him shall ye hear. 

" And this Prophet is the same who was 
in the church in the wilderness, with the 
Angel which spake unto Moses in Mount 
Sinai, and with our fathers ; the same who 
received the lively oracles to give unto us ; 
he whom our fathers would not obey, but 
thrust him from them, and were desirous 
of returning to their state of bondage ; com- 
manding Aaron to make them gods to go 
before them ; and pretending that they 
knew not what was become of Moses, who 
delivered them from the slavery of Egypt. 
They now made a calf, offered sacrifices 
to it, and rejoiced in the work of their 
own hands. On which the Almighty 
abandoned them, as the prophets have re- 
corded. O ye house of Israel, have you 
offered unto me slain beasts and sacrifices, by 
the space of forty years in the wilderness? 
Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, 
unci the star of your god Hemphan ; figures 
which ye made, to worship them : I will carry 
you away beyond Babylon. 

" Our fathers were possessed of the ta- 
bernacle of witness in the wilderness, being 
made according to the pattern Moses had 
seen in the mount. This tabernacle our 
fathers brought into the possession of the 
Gentiles, who were driven out by the Al- 
mighty, till the days of David, a favourite 
of the Most Hi eh, and who was desirous 
of finding a tabernacle for the God of 
Jacob ; but Solomon built him a house. 

" We must not, however, think, that 
the Almighty will reside in temples made 
with hands, as the prophet beautifully ob- 
served : Heaven is my throne, and earth is my 
footstool : what house will ye build me, saith 
the Lord, or zvhere is the place of my rest? 
Hath not mine hand made all these things ? 



" Ye stiff-necked, ye uncircumcised in 
heart and ears, ye will for ever resist the 
Holy Ghost. Ye tread in the paths of 
your fathers ; as they did, so do you still 
continue to do. Did not your fathers per- 
secute every one of the prophets ? did not 
they slay them who shewed the coming of 
the Holy One, whom ye yourselves have 
betrayed and murdered ? Ye have receiv- 
ed the law by the disposition of angels, but 
never kept it." 

At these words they were so highly en- 
raged, that they all gnashed their teeth 
against him. But Stephen, lifting up his 
eyes to heaven, saw the glory of God, and 
Jesus standing at the right hand of Omni- 
potence. Upon which he said to the 
council, " I see the heavens open, and the 
Son of man standing at the right hand of 
God." This so greatly provoked the Jews, 
that they cried out with one voice, and 
stopped their ears, as if they had heard 
some dreadful blasphemy ; and falling up- 
on him, they dragged him out of the city, 
and stoned him to death. It was the cus- 
tom of the Jews, on these occasions, for 
the witnesses to throw the first stone. 
Whether they observed this particular at 
the martyrdom of Stephen is uncertain ; 
but the evangelist tells us, that the wit- 
nesses w T ere principally concerned in this 
action ; for they stripped off their clothes, 
and laid them at the feet of a young man 
whose name was Saul, then a violent per- 
secutor of the Christian church, but after- 
wards one of the most zealous preachers of 
the gospel. 

Stephen, while they were mangling his 
body with stones, was praying to his hea- 
venly Father for their pardon : " Lord," 
said he, " lay not this sin to their charge/' 
And then calling on his dear Redeemer 
to receive his spirit, he yielded up his 
soul. 

TIMOTHY 



( 391 ) 



TIMOTHY. 



T f IMOTHY was a convert and disciple 
of St. Paul. He was born, accord- 
ing to some, at Lystra ; or, according to 
others, at Derbe. His father was a Gen- 
tile, but his mother a Jewess, whose name 
was Eunice ; and that of his grandmother, 
Lois. 

These particulars are taken notice of, be- 
cause St. Paul commends their piety, and 
the good education which they had given 
Timothy. When St. Paul came to Derbe 
and Lystra, about the year of Christ 51 or 
52, the brethren gave a very advantageous 
testimony of the piety and good disposition 
of Timothy ; and the apostle would have 
him along with him ; and he initiated him 
at Lystra, before he received him into his 
company. Timothy applied himself to la- 
bour with St. Paul in the business of the 
gospel, and did him very important ser- 
vices through the whole course of his 
preaching. It is not known when he was 
made a bishop ; but it is believed that he 
received very early the imposition of the 
apostle's hands, and that in consequence 
of particular revelation, or direction from 
the Holy Ghost. St. Paul calls him not 
only his clearly beloved son, but also his 
brother, the companion of his labours, and 
a man of God. He declared that there 
were none more united with him in heart 
and mind than Timothy. 

This holy disciple accompanied St. Paul 
to Macedonia, to Philippi,to Thessalonica, 
to Berea ; and when the apostle went from 
Berea, he left Timothy and Silas there to 
confirm the converts. When he came to 
Athens, he sent for Timothy to come 
thither to him ; and when he was come, 
and had given him an account of the 



churches of Macedonia, St. Paul sent him 
back to Thessalonica, from whence he 
afterwards returned with Silas, and came 
to St. Paul at Corinth. There he conti- 
nued with him ; and the apostle mentions 
him with Silas, at the beginning of the 
two epistles which he then wrote to the 
Thessalonians. 

Some vears after this, St. Paul sent Ti- 
mothy and Erastus into Macedonia, and 
gave Timothy orders to call at Corinth, to 
refresh the minds of the Corinthians, with 
regard to the truths which he had incul- 
cated on them. 

Some time after, writing to the same Co- 
rinthians, he recommends them to take care 
of Timothy, and send him back in peace ; 
after which Timothy returned to St. Paul 
in Asia, who there stayed for him. They 
went together into Macedonia ; and the 
apostle puts Timothy's name with his own 
before the second epistle to the Corinthians, 
which he wrote to them from Macedonia, 
about the middle of the year of Christ 57- 
And he sends his recommendations to the 
Romans, in the letter which he wrote them 
from Corinth the same year. 

When St. Paul returned from Rome, in 
64, he left Timothy at Ephesus, to take 
care of that church, of which he was the 
first bishop, as he is recognized by the coun- 
cil of Chalcedon. St. Paul wrote to him, 
from Macedonia, the first of the two epis- 
tles which are addressed to him. He re- 
commends him to be more moderate in his 
austerities, and to drink a little wine, be- 
j cause of the weakness of his stomach, and 
his frequent infirmities. After the apostle 
came to Rome, in the year 65, being now 
very near his death, he wrote to him his 

second 



392 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



second letter, which was full of the marks 
of his kindness and tenderness for this 
his dear disciple ; and which is justly look- 
ed upon as the last will of St. Paul. He 
desires him to come to Rome to him be- 
fore winter, and bring with him several 
things which St. Paul had left at Troas. If 
Timothy went to Rome, as it is probable 
he did, he must have been a witness of 
the martyrdom of this apostle, in the year 
of Christ 66. 

If he did not die before the year 97, we 
can hardly doubt that he must be the 
pastor of the church of Ephesus, to whom 
John writes in his Revelation ; though the 
reproaches with which he seems to load 
him for his declension in having left his 
first love, do not seem to agree to so holy 
a man as Timothy was ; or shew, that men 
eminently holy may yet fall from their 
stedfastness. Thus he speaks to him : " I 
know thy works, and thy labour, and thy 
patience, and how thou canst not bear 



them which are evil : and thou hast tried 
them which say they are apostles, and are 
not, and hast found them liars ; and hast 
borne, and hast patience, and for my name's 
sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. 
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against 
thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 
Remember, therefore, from whence thou 
art fallen, and repent, and do the first 
works; or else I will come unto thee quick- 
ly, and will remove thy candlestick out ot 
his place, except thou repent." The great- 
est part of the interpreters think that these 
reproaches do not so much concern the 
person of Timothy, as that of some mem- 
bers of his church, whose zeal was grown 
cool. But others are persuaded that they 
may be applied to Timothy himself, who 
made ample amends, by the martyrdom 
which he suffered, for the reproaches men- 
tioned by St. John in this place. It is 
supposed that Timothy had Onesimus for 
his successor. 



TITUS. 



FWHTUS was a Gentile by religion and 
-™- birth, but converted by St. Paul, who 
calls him his son. St. Jerome says, that he 
was St. Paul's interpreter : and that proba- 
bly because he might write what St. Paul 
dictated; or explained in Latin what this 
apostle said in Greek ; or rendered into 
Greek what St. Paul said in Hebrew or 
Syriac. St. Paul took him with him to 
Jerusalem, when he went thither in the 
year 51 of the vulgar era, about deciding 
the question which was then started, whe- 
ther the converted Gentiles ought to be 
made subject to the ceremonies of the law? 
Some would then have obliged him to cir- 
cumcise Titus ; but neither he nor Titus 



would consent to it. Titus was sent by 
| the same apostle to Corinth, upon occasion 
of some disputes which then divided the 
church. Pie was very well received by the 
Corinthians, and very much satisfied with 
their ready compliance ; but would receive 
nothing from them, imitating thereby the 
disinterestedness of his master. 

From hence he went to St. Paul in Ma- 
cedonia, and gave him an account of the 
state of the church at Corinth. A little 
while after the apostle desired him to re- 
turn again to Corinth, to set things in or- 
der preparatory to his coming. Titus rea- 
dily undertook this journey, and departed 
immediately, carrying with him St. Paul's 

second 



THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 



393 



second letter to the Corinthians. Titus 
was left to the care of the isle of Crete, 
about the 63d year of Christ, when St. 
Paul was obliged to quit that island, in 
order to take care of the other churches. 
The following year he wrote to him, to de- 
sire that as soon as he should have sent 
Tychicus of Artemas to him for supplying 
his place in Crete, Titus would come to him 
to Nicopolis in Macedonia, or to Nicopo- 
lis in Epirus, upon the gulf of Ambra- 
cia, where the apostle intended to pass 
his winter. 

The subject of this epistle is to represent 
to Titus what are the qualities that a bishop 
should be endued with. As the principal 
function which Titus was to exercise in the 
isle of Crete was to ordain elders, it was 
highly incumbent on him to make a dis- 
creet choice. The apostle also gives him 
a sketch, for the advice and instruction 
which he was to propound to all sorts of 
persons ; to the aged, both men and wo- 
men ; to young people of each sex ; to 
slaves or servants. He exhorts him to keep 
a strict authority over the Cretans ; and to 
reprove them with severity, as being a peo- 
ple addicted to lying, wickedness, idleness, 
and gluttony. And as many converted 
Jews were in the churches of Crete, he ex- 
horts Titus to oppose their vain traditions 
and Jewish fables ; and at the same time 



to shew them, that the observation of the 
legal ceremonies is no longer necessary ; 
that the distinction of meat is now abolish- 
ed, and that every thing is pure and clean 
to those that are so themselves : he puts 
him in mind of exhorting the faithful to be 
obedient to temporal power ; to avoid dis- 
putes, quarrels, and slander ; to apply 
themselves to honest callings ; and to shun 
the company of an heretic, after the first 
and second admonition. 

The epistle to Titus has always been ac- 
knowledged by the church. The Marcion- 
ites did not receive it, nor did the Basiii- 
dians, and some other heretics ; but Titian, 
the head of the Encratites, received it, and 
preferred it before all the rest. It is not 
certainly known from what place it was 
written, nor by whom it was sent. 

Titus was deputed to preach the gospel 
in Dalmatia ; and he was still there in the 
year 65, when the apostle wrote his second 
epistle to Timothy. He afterwards re- 
turned into Crete ; from which it is said he 
propagated the gospel into the neighbour- 
ing islands. He died at the age of 94, and 
was buried in Crete. We are assured that 
the cathedral of the city of Candia is de- 
dicated to his name ; and that his head is 
preserved there entire. The Greeks keep 
his festival on the 25th of August, and the 
Latins on the 4th of January. 



5 G 



THE 



THE 

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY 

BRIEFLY STATED: 

AND 

THE NEW TESTAMENT 

PROVED TO BE GENUINE. 



IN THREE JUDICIOUS AND EXCELLENT SERMONS. 

BY P. DODDRIDGE, D.D. 



SERMON 



We have not followed cunningly devised fables. 2 Pet. i. 16. 



TTT is undoubtedly a glory to our age and 
country, that the nature of moral virtue 
has been so clearly stated, and the practice 
of it so strongly enforced, by the views of 
its native beauty, and beneficial conse- 
quences, both to private persons and so- 
cieties. Perhaps, in this respect, hardly 
any nation or time has equalled, certainly 
few, if any, have exceeded our own. Yet 
I fear I might add, there have been few 
ages or countries where vice has more 
generally triumphed, in its most audaci- 
ous, and, in other respects, most odious 
forms. 

This may well appear a surprising case ; 
and it will surely be worth our while to in- 
quire into the causes of so strange a cir- 
cumstance. I cannot now enter into a 
particular detail of them. But I am per- 
suaded, none is more considerable than 



that unhappy disregard, either to the gos- 
pel in general, or to its most peculiar and 
essential truths, which is so visible amongst 
us, and which appears to be continually 
growing. It is plain, that, like some of 
old, who thought and professed themselves 
the wisest of mankind, or, in other words, 
the freest thinkers of their age, multitudes 
among us have not liked to retain God and 
his truths in their knowledge ; and it is 
therefore the less to be wondered at, if God 
has given them up to a reprobate mind : 
to the most infamous lusts and enormities ; 
and to a depth of degeneracy, which, 
while it is in part the natural consequence, 
is in part also the just, but dreadful punish- 
ment, of their apostasy from the faith 
And I am persuaded, that those who do in- 
deed wish well to the cause of public virtue, 
as every true Christian most certainly does, 

cannot 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



395 



cannot serve it more effectually, than by 
endeavouring to establish men in the be- 
lief of the gospel in general, and to affect 
their hearts with its most distinguished 
truths. 

The latter of these is our frequent em- 
ployment, and is what I some time ago 
particularly attempted, in a series of Dis- 
courses on the Power and Grace of the 
Redeemer : the former I shall now, by the 
Divine assistance, apply myself to on the 
present occasion. And I have chosen the 
words now before us, as a proper introduc- 
tion to such a design. 

They do indeed peculiarly refer to the 
coming of our Lord, which the apostle re- 
presents as attested by that glory, of which 
he was an eye-witness on the mount of 
transfiguration, and by that voice from 
heaven which he heard there ; but the 
truth of these facts is evidently connected 
with that of the gospel in general. I am 
persuaded, therefore, you will think they 
are properly prefixed to a discourse on the 
general evidences of Christianity. And I 
hope, by the Divine assistance, to propose 
them at this time in such a manner, as 
shall convince you that the apostles had 
reason to say, and that we also have reason 
to repeat it, we have not followed cunning- 
ly devised fables. 

I have often touched on this subject 
occasionally, but I think it my duty at pre- 
sent to insist something more largely upon 
it. You easily apprehend, that it is a 
matter of the highest importance, being 
indeed no other than the great foundation 
of all our eternal hopes. While so many 
are daily attempting to destroy this foun- 
dation, it is possible that those of you, es- 
pecially, who are but entering on the 
world, may be called out to give a reason 
of the hope that is in you : I would there- 
fore, with the apostle, be concerned, that 



you may be ready to do it. It may fortify 
you against the artifices, by which the 
unwary are often deceived and ensnared, 
and may possibly enable you to put to 
silence their foolishness. At least it will 
be for the satisfaction of your own minds, 
to have considered the matter seriously, and 
to be conscious to yourselves, that you are 
not Christians merely by education or ex- 
ample, as, had you been born elsewhere, 
you might have been Pagans or Mahome- 
tans ; but that you are so upon rational 
evidence, and because (as the sacred his- 
torian expresses it) you know the certainty 
of those things in which you have been 
instructed. 

To open and vindicate the proof of 
Christianity in all its extent, would be the 
employment of many discourses ; nor 
would it, on the whole, be proper to at- 
tempt it here. All that I now intend here 
is, to give you a summary view of the 
most considerable arguments, in that which 
seems to me their most proper and natural 
connection ; so that you may be able to 
judge of them better than you could pos- 
sibly do by a few scattered remarks, or by 
the most copious enlargement on any sin- 
gle branch of them alone. I shall endea- 
vour to dispose these hints so, as that they 
may be some guide to those, whose leisure 
and abilities may lead them to a more 
ample and curious inquiry ; that they 
may not be entangled in so complex an ar- 
gument, but may proceed in an orderly 
manner. And if any of you, my friends, 
desire a more particular information on 
any of those heads, which 1 now but 
briefly suggest, you may depend upon it, 
that faithful ministers of every denomi- 
nation will think it an important part of 
their duty, to give you all the private as- 
sistance they can. It is my hearty prayer, 
that God would enable me to plead his 

cause 



396 EVIDENCES OF 

cause with success ; that he would open 
your understandings to receive these things, 
and strengthen your memories to retain 
them ; that you may not be like children, 
tossed to and fro, and carried about with 
every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of 
men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they 
lie in wait to deceive ; but may be strong 
in faith, giving glory to God ; that, your 
faith being more and more established, it 
may appear, that the tree is watered at the 
roots ; and all your other graces may grow 
and flourish in an equal proportion. 

But before I proceed, I must desire you 
to observe, that there is no proof in the 
world so satisfactory to the true Christian, 
as to have felt the transforming power of 
the gospel on his own soul. As that illi- 
terate man whose eyes were miraculously 
opened by Christ, when he was questioned 
by the Jewish Sanhedrim, who endea- 
voured with all their sophistry to prove 
Christ an impostor, answered with great 
steadiness and constancy, and with a great 
deal of reason too, " This one thing I know, 
that whereas I was blind, now I see :" so 
the most unlearned of the disciples of Jesus, 
having found his soul enlightened and 
sanctified, and felt his heart so effectually 
wrought upon, as to bring him home to 
his duty, his God, and his happiness, by 
the constraining power of the gospel, will 
despise a thousand subtle objections which 
may be urged against it ; and though the 
cross of Christ be to the Jews a stumbling- 
block, and to the Greeks foolishness, yet 
with this experience of its saving energy, 
he will honour it in the midst of all their 
contempt and ridicule, as the power of 
God, and the wisdom of God. In this 
sense, though the miraculous communi- 
cation of the Spirit be ceased, he that be- 
lieveth hath still the witness in himself ; 
and while the Spirit beareth witness with 



CHRISTIANITY. 

his spirit that he is a child of God, he can- 
not doubt, but that the word by which he 
was, as it were, begotten unto him, is in- 
deed a divine and incorruptible seed. 

And perhaps there are certain seasons 
of pressing temptation, in Avhich the most 
learned, as well as the most illiterate Chris- 
tian, will find this the surest anchor of his 
hope. 

Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged, 
that this glorious kind of evidence is like 
the white stone, mentioned in the Revela- 
tion, on which there was a new name writ- 
ten, which no man knew but he who re- 
ceived it. God has therefore made other 
provision for the honour and support of his 
gospel, by furnishing it with a variety of 
proof, which may with undiminished, and 
indeed with growing, conviction, be com- 
municated from one to another. And we 
should be greatly wanting in gratitude to 
him, in zeal for a Redeemer's kingdom, 
and in charitable concern for the conver- 
sion of those who reject the gospel, as well 
as for the edification of those who embrace 
it, should we wholly overlook these argu- 
ments, or neglect to acquaint ourselves 
with them. This is the evidence which I 
am now to propose ; and I desire you 
would hear it with becoming attention. 
I speak to you as to rational creatures ; 
judge ye of the reasonableness of what I 
shall say. 

In prosecution of this great design, I 
shall endeavour more particularly to shew 
you, — that if we take the matter on a ge- 
neral survey, it will appear highly proba- 
ble, that such a scheme of doctrines and 
precepts, as we find Christianity to be, 
should indeed have been a Divine revela- 
tion ; — and then, that if we examine into 
the external evidence of it, we shall find it 
certain in fact, that it was so, and that it 
had its original from above 

First, 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



397 



First, let me shew, That talcing the matter 
merely in theory, it will appear highly pro- 
bable, that such a system as the gospel 
should be indeed a divine revelation. 

To evidence this, I would more particu- 
larly prove, — that the state of mankind was 
such, as greatly to need a revelation ; — 
that there seems, from the light of nature, 
encouragement to hope that God should 
grant one ; — that it is reasonable to believe, 
if any w r ere made, it should be so intro- 
duced and transmitted, as we are told 
Christianity was ; and that its general na- 
ture and substance should be such, as we 
find that of the gospel is. If these par- 
ticulars are made out, here will be a strong 
presumptive evidence, that the gospel is 
from God; and we shall have opened a 
fair way toward the more direct proof 
which I principally intend. 

1. The case of mankind is naturally such, as 
greatly to need a divine revelation. 

I speak not here of man in his original 
state ; though even then, as many have 
largely shewn, some instruction from above 
seemed necessary to inform him of many 
particulars which it was highly expedient 
that he should immediately know : but I 
speak of him in the degenerate condition 
in which he now so evidently lies, by what- 
ever means he was brought into it. It is 
an easy thing to make florid encomiums on 
the perfection of natural light, and to de- 
ceive unwary readers with an ambiguous 
term, which shall sometimes signify all that 
appears even to the divine understanding, 
and sometimes no more than the meanest 
of the human race may, or than they ac- 
tually do, attain; but let fact speak, and 
the controversy will soon be determined. 
I appeal to all, that are acquainted with 



the records of antiquity, or that have any 
knowledge of the most credible accounts 
of the present state of those countries where 
Christianity is unknown, whether it is not 
too obvious a truth, that the whole heathen 
world has lain, and still lies, in wickedness. 
Have not incomparably the greater part of 
them been perpetually bewildered in their 
religious notions and practices, vastly dif- 
fering from each other, and almost equally 
differing on all sides from the probable 
appearances of truth and reason ? Is any 
thing so wild as not to have been believed, 
any thing so infamous as not to have been 
practised, by them ; while they have not 
only pretended to justify it by reason, but 
have consecrated it as a part of their reli- 
gion ? To this very day, what are the dis- 
coveries of new nations in the American or 
African world, but, generally speaking, the 
opening of new scenes of enormity ? Ra- 
pine, lust, cruelty, human sacrifices, and 
the most stupid idolatries, are, and, for 
aught I can find, always have been, the 
morality and religion of almost all the Pa- 
gan nations under heaven : and to say, 
that there have still been some smothered 
sparks of reason within, which, if cherish- 
ed, might have led them to truth and hap- 
piness, is only saying, that they have been 
so much the more criminal, and therefore 
so much the more miserable. 

But you live at home, and hear these 
things only by uncertain report. Look then 
around you, within the sphere of your own 
observation, and see the temper and cha- 
racter of the generality of those who have 
been educated in a Christian, and even in 
a Protestant, country. Observe their igno- 
rance and forgetfulness of the Divine Be- 
ing, their impieties, their debaucheries, 
their fraud, their oppression, their pride, 
their avarice, their ambition, their unnatu- 
ral insensibility of the wants, and sorrows, 

5 H and 



398 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



and interests, of each other ; and when you 
see how bad they generally are in the 
midst of so many advantages, judge by 
that of the probable state of those that want 
them. Judge, upon these views, whether 
a revelation be an unnecessary thing. 

2. There is, from the light of nature, consi- 
derable encouragement to hope that God 
would favour his creatures with so needful 
a blessing as a revelation appears. 

That a revelation is in itself a possible 
thing, is evident beyond all shadow of a 
doubt. Shall not he that made man's 
mouth, who has given this wonderful fa- 
culty of discovering our sentiments, and 
communicating our ideas to each other, 
shall not he be able to converse with his ra- 
tional creatures, and by sensible manifesta- 
tions, or by inward impressions, to convey 
the knowledge of things which lie beyond 
the ken of their natural faculties, and yet 
may be highly conducive to their advan- 
tage ? To own a God, and to deny him 
such a power, will be a notorious contra- 
diction. Bat it may appear much more 
dubious whether he will please to confer 
such a favour on sinful creatures. 

Now I acknowledge, that we could not 
certainly conclude he would ever do it ; 
considering, on the one hand, how justly 
they stood exposed to his final displeasure ; 
and, on the other, what provision he had 
made by the frame of the human mind, 
and of nature around us, for giving us 
such notices of himself, as would leave us 
inexcusable, if we either failed to know 
him, or to glorify him as God, as the apostle 
argues, Rom. i. 20. Nevertheless, methinks 
we should have had something of this 
kind to hope from considering God as the 
indulgent Father of his creatures ; from ob- 
serving the tender care which he takes of 



us, and the liberal supply which he grants 
for the support of the animal life : especi- 
ally from the provision which he has made 
for man, considered as a guilty and cala- 
mitous creature, by the medicinal and 
healing virtues which he has given to many 
of the productions of nature, which in a 
state of perfect rectitude and happiness 
man would never have needed. This is a 
circumstance, which seemed strongly to 
intimate, that he would sometime or ano- 
ther graciously provide some remedy to 
heal men's minds ; and that he would in- 
terpose to instruct them in his own nature, 
in the manner in which he is to be served, 
and in the final treatment which they may 
expect from him. And, I think, such an 
apprehension seems very congruous to the 
sentiments of the generality of mankind ; 
as appears from the many pretences to di- 
vine revelation which have often been 
made, and the readiness of multitudes to 
receive them on very slender proofs : this 
shews how naturally men expect some 
such kind interposition of the Deity ; a 
thought which might farther be confirmed 
by some remark akle passages of heathen 
writers, which I have not now time parti- 
cularly to mention. 

3. We may easily conclude, That if a reve- 
lation were given, it would be introduced 
and transmitted in such a manner as Chris- 
tianity is said to have been. 

It is exceeding probable, for instance, 
that it should be taught, either by some il- 
lustrious person sent down from a superior 
world, or at least by a man of eminent wis- 
dom and piety, who should himself have 
been not only a teacher, but an example, 
of universal goodness. In order to this, it 
seems probable that he would be led thro' 
a series of calamity and distress ; since 

otherwise 



EVIDENCES OF 

otherwise he would not have been a pat- 
tern of the virtues which adorn adversity, 
and are peculiar to it. And it might also 
have been expected, that in the extremity 
of his distresses, the blessed God, whose 
messenger he was, should, in some extra- 
ordinary manner, have interposed, either to 
preserve, or to recover him from death. 

It is moreover exceeding probable, that 
such a person, and perhaps also they who 
were at first employed as his messengers to 
the world, should be endowed with a power 
of working miracles: both to awaken men's 
attention, and to prove a divine mission, 
and the consequent truth of their doctrines ; 
some of which might, perhaps, not be ca- 
pable of any other kind of proof ; or, if 
they were, it is certain that no method of 
arguing is so short, so plain, and so for- 
cible, and on the whole so well suited to 
the conviction, and probably the reforma- 
tion of mankind, as a course of evident, 
repeated, and uncontrolled miracles. And 
such a method of proof is especially adapt- 
ed to the populace, who are incomparably 
the greater part of mankind, and for whose 
benefit, we maj T assure ourselves, a revela- 
tion would chierly be designed. 1 might 
add, it was no way improbable, though 
not in itself certain, that a dispensation 
should open gradually on the world ; and 
that the most illustrious messenger of God 
to men should be ushered in by some pre- 
dictions, which should raise a great expec- 
tation of his appearance, and have an evi- 
dent accomplishment in him. 

As for the propagation of a religion so 
introduced, it seems no way improbable, 
that having been thus established in its first 
age, it should be transmitted to future ge- 
nerations by credible testimony, as other 
important facts are. It is certain, that 
affairs of the utmost moment, which are 
transacted amongst men, depend on testi- 



CHRISTIANITY. 399 

mony; on this, voyages are undertaken, 
settlements made, and controversies decid- 
ed ; controversies, on which not only the 
estates, but the lives of men depend. And 
though it must be owned, that such an his- 
torical evidence is not equally convincing 
with miracles which are wrought before 
our own eyes, yet it is certain it may rise 
to such a degree as to exclude all reason- 
able doubt. And I know not why we 
should expect that the evidence of a re- 
velation should be such, as universally to 
compel the immediate assent of all to 
whom it is offered. To me it seems much 
more likely, that it should be so adjusted, 
as to be a kind of touchstone to the tem- 
pers and characters of men ; capable in- 
deed of giving ample satisfaction to the di- 
ligent and candid inquirer, yet attended 
with some circumstances, from whence 
the captious and perverse might take oc- 
casion to cavil and object. Such might 
we suppose the evidence of the revelation 
would be, and such it is maintained that 
of Christianity is. The teachers of it sny, 
and undertake to prove, that it was thus 
introduced, thus established, and thus 
transmitted ; and we trust that this is a 
strong presumption in its favour ; especi- 
ally as we can add, 

4. The main doctrines contained in the gospel 
are of such a nature, as we might in general 
suppose those of a divine revelation would 
be — rational, practical, and sublime. 

One would imagine, that in a revelation 
of religion from God, the great principles 
of natural religion should be clearly as- 
serted, and strongly maintained : such, I 
mean, as the existence, the unity, the per- 
fection, and the providence, of God; the 
essential and immutable difference between 
moral good and evil ; the obligation we 

are 



400 EVIDENCES OF 

are under to the various branches of vir- 
tue, whether human, social, or divine ; the 
value and immortality of the soul ; and 
the rewards and punishments of a future 
state. One would easily conclude, that 
all these particulars must be contained in 
it ; and that, upon the whole, it should ap- 
pear calculated to form men's minds to a 
proper temper, rather than to amuse them 
with curious speculations. 

It might indeed be further supposed, 
and probably concluded, that such a reve- 
lation would contain some things, which 
could not have been learnt from the high- 
est improvements of natural light : and 
considering the infinite and unfathomable 
nature of the blessed God, it would be 
more than probable, that many things 
might be hinted at, and referred to, which 
our feeble faculties should not be able fully 
to comprehend. Yet we should expect to 
find these introduced in a practical view, as 
directing us to duties before unknown, or 
suggesting powerful motives to make us 
resolute and constant in the discharge of 
the rest ; particularly on what terms par- 
don and happiness might be expected by 
sinful creatures. As for ceremonial and 
positive institutions, we would imagine, at 
least in the most perfect state of the reve- 
lation, that they should be but few, and 
those few plainly subservient to the great 
purposes of practical religion. 

I shall only add, that forasmuch as pride 
appears to be the most reigning corruption 
of the human mind, and the source of num- 
berless irregularities ; it is exceeding pro- 
bable that a divine revelation should be 
calculated to humble the fallen creature, 
and bring it to a sense of its guilt and weak- 
ness ; and the more evidently that tendency 
appears, other things being equal, the great- 
er reason there is to believe, that the origi- 
nal of such a scheme is from above. 



CHRISTIANITY. 

Your own thoughts have undoubtedly 
prevented me in the application of these 
characters to the Christian revelation. The 
justice of that application I must not now 
illustrate at large. But I must beg leave 
to advance one remark, which will con- 
clude what I have to say on this head ; 
which is, that as the Christian system is un- 
doubtedly worthy of God, so considering 
the manner in which it is said to have been 
introduced, (separate from the evidence of 
the facts, which is afterwards to be consi- 
dered,) it is very difficult to imagine from 
whom else it could have proceeded. 

I will readily allow, that neither the 
reasonableness of its doctrines, nor the pu- 
rity of its morals, will alone prove its di- 
vine original ; since it is possible the rea- 
son of one man may discover that, which 
the reason of another approves, as being, 
in itself considered, either true in theory, 
or useful in practice. But this is not all ; 
for in the present case it is evident, that 
the first teachers of Christianity professed 
that they were taught it by Divine revela- 
tion, and that they were empowered by 
God with miraculous endowments for the 
confirmation of it. Now, if it were not 
indeed so as they professed, how can we 
account for so strange a phenomenon, as 
such a doctrine introduced with such pre- 
tences ? If it were not from God, w T hence 
was it ? From good, or from evil angels, or 
men ? Wicked creatures, as our Lord inti- 
mates, Matt. xii. 25. would never conceive 
and propagate so excellent a scheme ; nor 
can we imagine, that holy angels, or righ- 
teous men, would thus be found false wit- 
nesses of God, or have attempted to sup- 
port the cause of religion and truth by 
such impious and notorious falsehoods, as 
their pretensions must have been, if they 
were falsehoods at all.- 

And thus much for the first branch of 

the 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



401 



the argument : if you consider the Chris- 
tian scheme only in theory, it appears 
highly probable ; since a revelation was so 
much needed, might so reasonably be ex- 
pected, and if it were ever given, would, 
so far as we can judge, be thus introduced, 
and be in the main attended with such in- 
ternal characters. And though we have 
not as yet expressly proved, that the gos- 
pel was introduced in such a manner, as 
the defenders of it assert ; yet it would be 
strangely unaccountable, that so admirable 
a system of truth and duty should be ad- 
vanced by the prince of darkness, and the 
children of wickedness ; as it must have 
been, if the persons first employed in the 
propagation of it were not endowed with 
power from on high. 

To embrace the gospel is so safe, and on 
the whole so comfortable a thino-, that I 
think a wise man would deliberately and 
resolutely venture his all upon it, though 
nothing more could be offered for its con- 
firmation. But, blessed be God, we have 
a great deal more to offer in this important 
cause ; and can add, with still greater con- 
fidence, that it is not only in theory thus 
probable, but, 

Secondly, That it is in fact certain, that 
Christianity is inched a Divine Revelatio?i. 

Here I confess the chief stress is to be 
laid ; and therefore I shall insist more 
largely on this branch of the argument, 
and endeavour, by the Divine assistance, to 
prove the certainty of this great fact. You 
will naturally apprehend, that I speak only 
of what is commonly called a moral cer- 
tainty : but I need speak of no more ; for 
in many cases, such kind of evidence gives 
the mind as ample and as rational a satis- 
faction, as it may find even in some sup- 
posed mathematical demonstrations : since 



there it is possible, at least in a long deduc- 
tion of particulars, for the most sagacious 
of mankind to fall into a mistake. 

Now, in order to settle this grand point 
as clearly as I can, I think it may be pro- 
per to prove, 

I. That the books of the New Testa- 
ment, as they are now in your hands, may 
be depended upon as written by the first 
preachers and publishers of Christianity. 
And, 

II. That from hence it will certainly 
follow, that what they assert is true, and 
that the religion they teach, brings along 
with it such evidences of a divine autho- 
rity, as may most justly recommend it to 
our acceptance. 

Each of these heads might furnish out 
matter for many volumes; but it is my bu- 
siness to hint at the most obvious and im- 
portant thoughts by which they may briefly 
be illustrated and confirmed. 

I. I am to prove to you, That the books q, 
the New Testament now in your hands, 
were written by the first preachers and pub- 
lishers of Christianity. 

You see I confine the present proof to 
the books of the New Testament. Not 
that I think the authority of the Old to be 
suspected, or the use of it by any means to 
be despised. God forbid ! it is an invalu- 
able treasure, which demands our daily de- 
lightful and thankful perusal, and is capa- 
ble of being defended in a manner which I 
am persuaded its subtilest enemies will 
never be able to answer. But the nature 
of my present argument, and the limits of 
my time, oblige me at present to wave the 
proof of it, any farther than as it is implied 
in, and dependent upon, what I have more 
immediately in view. 

In the process of the discourse, though 
5 1 I shall 



4C2 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



I shall studiously avoid any ostentation of 
learning ; yet it will be absolutely neces- 
sary to assert some things, which cannot 
certainly be known without some little ac- 
quaintance with ancient writers. You can- 
not, most of you, be supposed to have form- 
ed such an acquaintance ; but I take it for 
granted you will readily believe, that I 
will not lie for God, ncr talk deceitfully for 
him. I shall say nothing of this kind but 
what I know to be contained in those writ- 
ings ; and you may assure yourselves, that 
no man of common sense, whatever his 
moral or religious character were, would 
venture, in such an age as this, publicly to 
cite passages, as from authors in every 
one's hands, which he cannot prove to be 
contained in them. 

Having premised these things, I go on 
to the argument, and shall advance in it 
by the following degrees : I shall prove,- — 
that Christianity is an ancient religion ; — 
that there was such a person as Jesus of 
Nazareth crucified at Jerusalem above se- 
venteen hundred years ago ; — that the first 
preachers of his religion wrote books, which 
went by the name of those that now make 
up the volume of our New Testament ; — 
that they are preserved in the Original to 
the present times : — and that the transla- 
tion of them, which you have, is in the 
main such as may be depended upon as 
faithful. And then I shall have clearly 
made out what I proposed in this first part. 

i. It is certain, That Christianity is not a 
new religion, but that it is maintained by 
great multitudes quickly after the time in 
which Jesus is said to have appeared. 

That there was, considerably more than 
sixteen hundred years ago, a body of men 
who went by the name of Christians, is al- 
most as evident as that a race of men was 



then existing in the world ; nor do I know 
that any have ever been wild and confident 
enough to dispute it. If any should for 
argument's sake question it, they might 
quickly be convinced by a considerable 
number of Christian writers, who lived in 
the same, or the next age, and mention it 
as a thing notoriously certain, that Chris- 
tianity was then of some standing in the 
world ; some of them giving directions and 
exhortations to their brethren, and others 
forming apologies to their enemies, for 
which there could not otherwise have been 
the least foundation. We might have 
acquiesced in their testimony, had it been 
alone ; but it is confirmed by that of Jews 
and Heathens, who, by their early invec- 
tives against the Christians, do most evi- 
dently prove, that there was such a body 
of men in the world. — The most consider- 
able Roman historians, who lived in this 
age, and wrote of it, are Tacitus and Sue- 
tonius, who both published their writings 
above sixteen hundred years ago ; and they 
are always, and very justly, appealed to, 
as pregnant witnesses upon this occasion. 
For Tacitus assures us, " that in Nero's 
days," who begun his reign about twenty 
years after the death of Christ, " there was 
a vast multitude of Christians, not only in 
Juclea, but at Rome too ; against whom 
Nero raised a persecution, attended with 
such circumstances of ignominy and cru- 
elty, as moved the compassion even of their 
enemies f of which number this historian 
evidently was. Nay, he plainly intimates, 
that this was not the first attempt which 
had been made to crush them ; though 
this attempt was so early as we have 
heard. — His contemporary, Suetonius, in 
his more concise manner, attests the same 
— And Pliny, the intimate friend and cor- 
respondent of both, being employed in 
Trajan's time to persecute the Christians. 

write 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



403 



writes an account of them to that emperor, 
which, though commonly known, must be 
mentioned, as it is so highly important. 
After having spoken very favourably of 
their moral character, he adds, "that many 
of both sexes, and of every age and rank, 
were infected with this superstition," as he 
thinks fit to express it ; " that it was gone 
into the villages, as well as the cities ; and 
that, till he began to put the laws in exe- 
cution against them, the temples of the 
Heathen deities were almost deserted, and 
hardly any could be found who would buy 
victims for them." — It might be added, 
that Marcus Antoninus, who wrote a few 
3*ears after Pliny, mentions the Christians, 
" as examples of a resolute and obstinate 
contempt of death :" and it is generally 
supposed, they are the Galileans whom 
Epictetus speaks of, " as those whom prac- 
tice had taught to despise the rage of their 
armed enemies." 

I shall dismiss this head with observing, 
that it tends greatly to the confirmation of 
Christianity, that each of these celebrated 
and ancient Pagan writers, at the same time 
they attest the existence of such a body of 
men professing it, inform us of those ex- 
treme persecutions which they underwent 
in the very infancy of their religion ; a 
fact also farther apparent from the apolo- 
gies addressed by the Christians to their 
persecutors, which, whatever imperfections 
may attend the manner in which some of 
them are written, appear to me some of the 
most valuable remains of antiquity, (the 
sacred records only excepted,) especially 
those of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and 
Minutius Felix. This fundamental point 
is then abundantly made out; that there 
were vast numbers of men, very quickly 
after the time when Jesus is said to have 
appeared upon earth, who professed his re- 
ligion, and chose to endure the greatest ex- 



tremities, rather than they would abandon 
it. From hence it will be easy to shew, 

2. That there was certainly such a person as 
Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified at 
Jerusalem, when Pontius Pilate was the 
Homan governor there. 

It can never be imagined, that multi- 
tudes of people should take their name 
from Christ, and sacrifice their lives for 
their adherence to him, even in the same 
age in which he is said to have lived, if 
they had not been well assured there was 
such a person. Now several of the au- 
thors I have mentioned, plainly assert, 
that the Christians were denominated from 
Christ ; nay, Tacitus expressly adds, " that 
he was put to death under Pontius Pilate, 
who was procurator of Judea, in the reign 
of Tiberius." And it is well known, that 
the primitive Christian apologists often ap- 
peal to the acts of Pilate, or the memoirs 
of his government, (which he, according to 
the custom of other procurators, transmit- 
ted to Rome,) as containing an account 
of these transactions ; and as the appeal 
was made to those who had the command 
of the public records, we may assure our- 
selves such testimonies were then extant. 
But it is a fact which our enemies never 
denied : they owned it ; they even gloried 
in it, and upbraided the Christians with 
it. The Jews therefore, in some of their 
earliest writings since those times, call 
Jesus by the ignominious name of " the 
man who was hanged, or crucified," and 
his followers, " the servants of the crucified 
person." And Lucian rallies them for de- 
serting the pompous train of the Heathen 
deities, to worship one whom he impiously 
calls a crucified impostor." Spartian also 
assures us, that the emperor Alexander 
Severus entertained such high thoughts 



404 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



of Christ, " that he would have admitted 
him into the number of his deities, and 
have built a temple to him, had not his 
Pagan subjects vigorously opposed it." 
And Porphyry, though an inveterate enemy 
to Christianity, not only allowed there was 
such a person, but honoured him " as a 
most wise and pious man, approved by the 
gods, and taken up into heaven for his 
distinguished virtues." — -I might add a 
great deal more on this head ; but it al- 
ready appears as certain as ancient history 
can make it, and incomparably more cer- 
tain than most of the facts which it has 
transmitted to us, that there was at the 
time commonly supposed such a person as 
Christ, who professed himself a divine 
teacher, and who gathered many disciples, 
by whom his religion was afterwards pub- 
lished in the world. 

3. It is also certain, That the first publish- 
ers of this religion wrote hooks, which con- 
tained an account of the life and doctrine 
of Jesus their master, and which went by 
the name of those that now make up our 
New Testament. 

It was in the nature of thing's exceed- 
ing probable, that what they had seen and 
heard, they would declare and publish to 
the world in writing ; considering how 
common books were in the age and coun - 
tries in which they taught ; and of how 

freat importance an acquaintance with the 
istory and doctrine of Christ was, to the 
purposes which they so strenuously pur- 
sued : but we have much more than such 
a presumptive evidence. 

The greatest adversaries of Christianity 
must grant, that we have books of great 
antiquity, written some fourteen, others 
fifteen, and some sixteen hundred years 
ago ; in which mention is made of the 



life of Christ, as written by many, and es 
pecially by four of his disciples, who by 
way of eminence are called the Evange- 
lists. Great pains indeed have been taken 
to prove, that some spurious pieces were 
published under the names of the apostles, 
containing the history of these things ; but 
surely this must imply, that it was a thing 
known and allowed, that the apostles did 
write some narrations of this kind ; as 
counterfeit coin implies some true money, 
which it is designed to represent. And I 
am sure, he must be very little acquainted 
with the ancient ecclesiastical writers, who 
does not know, that the primitive Christians 
made a very great difference between those 
writings, which we call the canonical books 
of the New Testament, and others ; which 
plainly shews, that they did not judge of 
writings merely by the names of their pre- 
tended authors, but inquired with an accu- 
racy becoming the importance of those 
pretences. The result of this inquiry was, 
the four Gospels, the Acts, thirteen Epistles 
of Paul, one of Peter, and one of John, 
were received upon such evidence, that 
Eusebius, a most accurate and early critic 
in these things, could not learn that they 
had ever been disputed ; and afterwards 
the remaining books of the New Testa- 
ment, Hebrews, James, the Second of Pe- 
ter, the Second and Third of John, Jude, 
and the Revelation, were admitted as ge- 
nuine, and added to the rest ; though some 
circumstances attending them rendered 
their authority for a while a little dubious. 
On the whole it is plain, the primitive 
Christians were so satisfied in the autho- 
rity of these sacred books, that they speak 
of them not only as credible and authen- 
tic, but as equal to the oracles of the 
Old Testament, as divinely inspired, as 
the words of the Spirit, as the law and or- 
gan of God, and as the rule of faith, which 

cannot 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



405 



cannot be contradicted without great guilt ; 
with many other expressions of the like 
kind, which often occur in their discour- 
ses. To which I may add, that in some 
of their councils, the New Testament was 
placed on a throne, to signify their con- 
cern, that all their controversies and ac- 
tions might be determined and regulated 
by it. 

On the whole then you see, that the 
primitive church did receive certain pieces 
which bore the same titles with the books 
of our New Testament. Now I think it 
is evident, they were as capable of judging 
whether a book was written by Matthew, 
John, or Paul, as an ancient Roman could 
be of determining whether Horace, Tully, 
or Livy, wrote those which go under their 
names. And I am sure, the interest of the 
former was so much more concerned in 
the writings of the apostles, than that of 
the latter in the compositions of the poets, 
orators, or even their historians ; that there 
is reason to believe, they would take much 
greater care to inform themselves fully in 
the merits of the cause, and to avoid being 
imposed upon by artifice and fiction. Let 
me now shew, 

4. That the books of the New Testament hate 
been preserved in the main uncorrupted, to 
the present time, in the original language 
in which they were written. 

This is a matter of vast importance, and, 
blessed be God, it is attended with propor- 
tionable evidence ; an evidence, in which 
the hand of Providence has indeed been 
remarkably seen ; for I am confident, that 
there is no other ancient book in the world 
which may so certainly and so easily be 
proved to be authentic. 

And here, I will not argue merely from 
the piety of the primitive Christians, and 



the heroic resolution with which they 
chose to endure the greatest extremities, 
rather than they would deliver up their 
Bibles, (though that be a consideration of 
some evident weight ;) but shall entreat 
you to consider the utter impossibility of 
corrupting them. From the first ages, they 
were received, and read in the churches, 
as a part of their public worship, just as 
Moses and the Prophets were in the Jew- 
ish synagogues ; they were presently spread 
far and wide, as the boundaries of the 
church were increased ; they were early 
translated into other languages, of which 
translations some remain to this day. Now 
when this was the case, how could they 
possibly be adulterated ? Is it a thing to 
be supposed or imagined, that thousands 
and millions of people should have come 
together from distant countries ; and that 
with all their diversities of language and 
customs, and, I may add, of sentiments too, 
they should have agreed on corrupting a 
book which they all acknowledged to be 
the rule of their faith and their manners, 
and the great charter by which they held 
their eternal hopes ? It were madness to 
believe it ; especially when we consider 
what numbers of heretics appeared in the 
very infancy of the church, who all pre- 
tended to build their notions on scripture, 
and most of them appealed to it as the 
final judge of controversies. Now it is 
certain, that these different parties of pro- 
fessing Christians were a perpetual guard 
upon each other, and rendered it impossi- 
ble for one party to practise grossly on the 
sacred books, without the discovery and 
the clamour of the rest. 

Nor must I omit to remind you, that in 
every age, from the apostles' time to our 
own, there have been numberless quota- 
tions made from the books of the New 
Testament ; and a multitude of coramen- 

5 K taries 



406 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



taries in various languages, and some of 
very ancient date, have been written upon 
them : so that if the books themselves were 
lost, I believe they might in a great mea- 
sure, if not entirely, be recovered from the 
writings of others. And one might venture 
to say, that if all the quotations which have 
ever been made from all the ancient wri- 
tings now remaining in Europe were to be 
amassed together, the bulk of them would 
be by no means comparable to that of the 
quotations taken from the New Testament 
alone. So that a man might with a much 
better face dispute, whether the writings 
ascribed to Homer, Demosthenes, Virgil, 
or Cesar, be in the main such as they left 
them, than he could question it concern- 
ing those of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 
Peter, James, and Paul, whether they are 
in the main so. 

I say, in the main, because we readily 
allow, that the hand of a printer, or of a 
transcriber, might chance in some places 
to insert one letter or word for another ; 
and the various readings of this, as well as 
of all other ancient books, prove that this 
has sometimes been the case. Neverthe- 
less, those various readings are generally of 
so little importance, that he who can urge 
them as an objection against the assertion 
we are now maintaining, must have little 
judgment, or little integrity ; and, indeed, 
after those excellent things which have 
been said on the subject by many defend- 
ers of Christianity, if he have read their 
writings, he must have little modesty too. 

Since then it appears, that the books of 
the New Testament, as they now stand in 
the original, are, without any material al- 
teration, such as they were when they 
came from the hands of the persons whose 
names they bear, nothing remains to com- 
plete this part of the argument, but to 
shew , 



5. That the Translation of them, now in your 
hands, may be depended upon, as, in all 
things most material, agreeable to the ori- 
ginal. 

This is a fact, of which the generality 
of you are not capable of judging imme- 
diately, yet it is a matter of great import- 
ance : it is therefore a very great pleasure 
to me to think, what ample evidence you 
may find another way, to make your minds 
as easy on this head as you could reason- 
ably wish them ; I mean, by the concurrent 
testimony of others, in circumstances in 
which you cannot imagine they would unite 
to deceive you. 

There are, to be sure, very few of us, 
whose office it is publicly to preach the 
gospel, who have not examined this mat- 
ter with care, and who are not capable of 
judging in so easy a case. I believe you 
have seen few in the place where I now 
stand, that could not have told you, as I 
now solemnly do, that, on a diligent com- 
parison of our translation with the original, 
we find that of the New Testament, (and 
I might also add, that of the Old,) in the 
main faithful and judicious. You know, 
indeed, that we do not scruple on some 
occasions to animadvert upon it ; but you 
also know, that these remarks affect not 
the fundamentals of religion, and seldom 
reach any farther than the beauty of a 
figure, or at most the connection of an ar- 
gument. Nay, I can confidently say, that, 
to the best of my knowledge and remem- 
brance, as there is no copy of the Greek, 
so neither is there any translation of the 
New Testament, which I have seen, whe- 
ther ancient or modern, how defective and 
faulty soever, from which all the principal 
facts and doctrines of Christianity might 
not be learnt, so far as the knowledge of 
them is necessary to salvation, or even to 

some 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



407 



some considerable degrees of edification in 
piety. Nor do I except from this remark 
even that most erroneous and corrupt ver- 
sion published by the English Jesuits at 
Rheims, which is undoubtedly one of the 
worst that ever appeared in our language. 

But I desire not, that, with respect to our 
own translation of the New Testament, a 
matter of so great moment as the fidelity 
of it should rest on my testimony alone, or 
entirely on that of any of my brethren, for 
whose integrity and learning you may have 
the greatest and justest esteem. I rejoice 
to say, that this is a head on which we 
cannot possibly deceive you, if we were 
ever so desirous to do it. And indeed, in 
this respect, that is our advantage, which 
in others is our great calamity; I mean, the 
diversity of our religious opinions. It is 
certain, that wheresoever there is a body 
of dissenters from the public establishment, 
who do yet agree with their brethren of 
that establishment in the use of the same 
translation, though they are capable of ex- 
amining it, and judging of it ; there is as 
great evidence as could reasonably be de- 
sired, that such a translation is in the main 
right; for if it were in any considerable 
argument corrupted, most of the other de- 
bates would quickly lose themselves in this ; 
and though such dissenters had all that 
candour, tenderness, and respect for their 
fellow Christians, which I hope we shall 
always endeavour to maintain, yet they 
would, no doubt, think themselves obliged 



in conscience to bear a warm and loud tes- 
timony against so crying an abomination ; 
as they would another day appear free 
from the guilt of a confederacy to poison 
the public fountains, and destroy the souls 
of men. But we make no complaint on 
this subject; we all unite in bearing our 
testimony to the oracles of God, as deli- 
vered in our own language. Oh that we 
were equally united in regulating our doc- 
trine and our discipline, our worship and 
our practice, by them ! 

You see then, on the whole, how much 
reason there is to believe, " that the books 
of the New Testament, as they are now in 
your hands, were written by those whose 
names they bear, even the first preachers 
and publishers of Christianity." 

This is the grand point ; and from hence 
it will follow, by a train of easy and na- 
tural consequences, that the gospel is most 
certainly true : but that is a topic of argu- 
ment abundantly sufficient to furnish out 
matter for another discourse. May God 
command his blessing on what has been 
already laid before us, that, through the 
operation of his Spirit, it may be useful for 
establishing our regard to the scripture, and 
for confirming our faith in that Almightjr 
Redeemer, who is the Alpha and the Ome- 
ga, the Beginning and the End, the First 
and the Last ; whom to know is life ever- 
lasting ; and in whom to believe, is the 
great security of our eternal salvation ! 
Amen. 



SERMON 



( 408 ) 



SERMON II. 



THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, DEDUCED FROM THE NEW 
TESTAMENT, ALLOWED TO BE GENUINE. 



We have not followed cunningly devised fables. 2. Pet. i. 16. 



HEN we are addressing ourselves to 
an audience of professing Christians, 
I think we may reasonably take it for grant- 
ed, in the main course of our ministry, that 
they believe the truth of the gospel, and 
may argue with them on that supposition. 
To be ever laying the foundation, would be 
the part of an unwise builder, and be greatly 
detrimental to your edification and com- 
fort, and, I may add, to our own. Never- 
theless, Christians, we do not desire that 
you should take it merely upon our word, 
that your religion is divine, and your scrip- 
tures inspired. We desire, that your faith, 
as well as your worship, should be a reason- 
able service ; and wish that, in this respect, 
all the Lord's people were as prophets ; 
that as every Christian is in his sphere set 
for the defence of the gospel, each might 
in some measure be able to assert its truth, 
and, if possible, to convince gainsayers, 
Therefore, as we are often hinting at the 
chief arguments on which this sacred cause 
is established, (established, I trust, so firm- 
ly that the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it,) so I thought it might be agree- 
able and useful, on this occasion, to state 
them a little more largely, in their proper 
connection and mutual dependence. And 
1 chose rather to do it, as these Sermons 
are especially intended for young peo- 



ple, who, in an age in which infidelity so 
much abounds, can hardly expect to pass 
through the world, if they are called to 
converse much in it, without some at- 
tacks on their faith ; which may be very 
dangerous, if they are not provided with 
some armour of proof against them. It 
is indeed, (as I before observed,) above 
all things to be desired, that the heart 
may be established with grace ; for we 
are then more secure from the danger of 
forgetting God's precepts, when they have 
been the blessed means of quickening us 
to a divine life. Yet as other arguments 
have their use, and in some degree their 
necessity too, I shall go on briefly to pro- 
pose them. 

I beg, therefore, that you would renew 
your attention, while I resume the thread 
of my discourse, in an entire dependence 
on the blessed Spirit, by whom the gospel 
was at first revealed and confirmed, to add 
success to this humble attempt for its ser- 
vice, and for your edification. 

I am now shewing you, that Christianity, 
which before appeared in theory probable 
and rational, has in fact a convincing evi- 
dence ; not only that it may be, but that 
it certainly is, true ; — as it is certain, that 
the New Testament, as now in your hands, 
is genuine ; — and as it may with great evi- 
dence 




EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



409 



dence be argued from hence, that the gospel 
is a revelation from God. The first of these 
points I have endeavoured to prove at large ; 
and, without repeating what I said in con- 
firmation of it, I now proceed to shew, 

2. That from allowing the New Testament to 
be genuine, it will certainly follow, that 
Christianity is a divine Revelation. 

And here a man is at first ready to be 
lost in the multiplicity of arguments which 
surround him. It is very easy to find 
proofs ; but difficult to range and dispose 
them in such an order, as best to illustrate 
and confirm each other. Now I chuse to 
offer them in the following series, which 
seems to me the most natural, and perhaps 
may be most intelligible to you. 

The authors of the books contained in 
the New Testament were certainly capable 
of judging concerning the truth of the facts 
they attested ; — their character, so far as 
we can judge of it by their writings, ren- 
ders them worthy of regard ;— and they 
were under no temptation to attempt to 
impose on the world by such a story as 
they have given us, if it had been false : 
so that, considering all things, there is no 
reason to believe they would attempt it ; 
but if they had, they must probably have 
perished in the attempt, and could never 
have gained credit in the world, had their 
testimony been false. — Nevertheless, it is 
certain in fact, that they did gain credit, 
and succeed in a most amazing manner, 
against all opposition. — It is certain, there- 
fore, that the facts they assert were true ; 
and if they were true, that it was reason- 
able for their contemporaries, and is reason- 
able for us, to receive the gospel as a di- 
vine revelation ; — especially if we consider 
what has happened in the world for the con- 
firmation of it, since it was first propagated 



by them. This is the conclusion to which 
I was to lead you ; and I beg you would 
seriously consider each of the steps by 
which we arrive at it. 

1. It is exceeding evident, That the wri- 
ters of the New Testament certainly knew 
zehether the facts they asserted were true 
or false. 

And this they must have known for this 
plain reason : because they tell us they did 
not trust merely to the report, even of per- 
sons whom they thought most credible ; 
but were present themselves when several 
of the most important facts happened, 
and so received them on the testimony of 
their own senses. On this St. John, in his 
epistle, lays a very great and reasonable 
stress : That which we have seen with our 
eyes, and that not by a sudden glance, but 
which we have attentively looked upon, 
and which even our hands have handled of 
the word of life— i. e. of Christ and his 
gospel — declare we unto you. 

Let the common sense of mankind judge 
here. Did not Matthew and John cer- 
tainly know whether they had personally 
and familiarly conversed with Jesus of 
Nazareth, or not? whether he had chosen 
them for his constant attendants and apos- 
tles ? whether they had seen him heal the 
sick, dispossess devils, and raise the dead ? 
and whether they themselves had received 
from him such miraculous endowments, as 
they say he bestowed upon them ; Did 
not they know, whether he fell into the 
hands of his enemies, and was publicly put 
to death, or not? Did not John know, 
whether he saw him expiring on the cross, 
or not ? and whether he received from him 
the dying charge which he records ? Did 
he not know, whether he saw him wounded 
in the side with a spear, or not? and 

5 L whether 



410 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



whether he did or did not see that effu- 
sion of blood and water, which was an in- 
fallible argument of his being really dead ? 
concerning which, it being so material a 
circumstance, he adds, He that saw it bare 
record, and he knoweth that he saith true ; 
i. e. that it w T as a case in which he could 
not possibly be deceived. And with regard 
to Christ's resurrection, did he not certainly 
know, whether he saw our Lord again and 
again ? and whether he handled his body, 
that he might be sure it was not a mere 
phantom ? What one circumstance of his 
life could he certainly know, if he were 
mistaken in this ? 

Did not Luke know, whether he was in 
the ship with Paul, when that extraordi- 
nary wreck happened, by which they were 
thrown ashore on the island of Melita, or 
Malta ? Did he not know, whether, while 
they were lodged together in the governor's 
house, Paul miraculously healed one of 
the family, and many other diseased per- 
sons in the island, as he positively asserts 
that he did ? 

Did not Paul certainly know, whether 
Christ appeared to him on the way to Da- 
mascus, or not? whether he was blind, 
and afterwards, on the prayer of a fellow- 
disciple, received his sight ? or was that a 
circumstance in which there could be room 
for mistake ? Did he not know, whether 
he received such extraordinary revelations, 
and extraordinary powers, as to be able, 
by the imposition of his hands, or by the 
words of his mouth, to work miracles, and 
even to convey supernatural endowments 
to others ? 

To add one more : did not Peter know, 
whether he saw the glory of Christ's trans- 
figuration, and heard that voice to which 
he expressly refers, when he says in the 
text, We have not followed cunningly de- 
vised fables, — but were eye-witnesses of 



his majesty — when there came such a voice 
to him ; and this voice we heard. 

Now Matthew, John, Luke, Paul, and 
Peter, are by far the most considerable 
writers of the New Testament ; and I am 
sure, when you reflect on these particulars, 
you must own, that there are few histori- 
ans, ancient or modern, that could so cer- 
tainly judge of the truth of the facts they 
have related. You may perhaps think I 
have enlarged too much in stating so clear 
a case : but you will please to remember, 
it is the foundation of the whole argu- 
ment ; and that this branch of it alone 
cuts off infidels from that refuge, which 1 
believe they would generally chuse, that of 
pleading the apostles were enthusiasts ; 
and leaves them silent, unless they will say 
they were impostors : for you evidently 
see, that, could we suppose these facts to 
be false, they could by no means pretend 
an involuntary mistake, but must in the 
most criminal and aggravated sense, as 
Paul himself expresses it, be found false 
witnesses of God. But how unreasonable 
it would be to charge them with so noto- 
rious a crime, will in part appear, if we 
consider, 

2. That the character of those writers, so 
far as we can judge by their works, seems 
to render them worthy of regard, and 
leaves no room to imagine they intended to 
deceive us. 

I shall not stay to shew at large, that 
they appear to have been persons of natu- 
ral sense, and, at the time of their writing, 
of a composed mind ; for I verily believe, 
no man, that ever read the New Testament 
with attention, could believe they were 
idiots or madmen. Let the discourses of 
Christ in the Evangelists, of Peter and 
Paul in the Acts, as well as many passages 

in 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



41J 



in the Epistles, be perused, and I will ven- 
ture to say, he who is not charmed with 
them, must be a stranger to all the justest 
rules of polite criticism ; but he who sus- 
pects, that the writers wanted common 
sense, must himself be most evidently des- 
titute of it; and he who can suspect they 
might possibly be distracted, must himself, 
in this instance at least, be just as mad as 
he imagines them to have been. 

It was necessary, however, just to touch 
upon this ; because, unless we are satisfied 
that a person be himself in what he writes, 
we cannot pretend to determine his charac- 
ter from his writings. Having premised 
this, I must entreat you, as you peruse the 
New Testament, to observe what evident 
marks it bears of simplicity and integrity, 
of piety and benevolence ; which when you 
have observed, you will find them plead- 
ing the cause of its authors with a resist- 
less, though a gentle, eloquence ; and pow- 
erfully persuading the mind, that men who 
are capable of writing so excellently well, 
are not, without the strongest evidence, to 
be suspected of acting so detestably ill, 
as we must suppose they did, if, in this so- 
lemn manner, they were carrying on an 
imposture, in such circumstances as at- 
tended the case before us. For, 

1. The manner in which they tell their 
amazing story, is most happily adapted to 
gain our belief. For as they tell it with a 
great detail of circumstances, which would 
by no means be prudent in legendary wri- 
ters, because it leaves so much the more 
room for confutation ; so they also do it in 
the most easy and natural manner. There 
is no air of declamation and harangue : 
nothing that looks like artifice and design; 
no apologies, no encomiums, no characters, 
no reflections, no digressions ; but the facts 
are recounted with great simplicity, just as 
they seem to have happened ; and those 



facts are left to speak for themselves, and 
their great Author. It is plain, that the 
rest of the writers, as well as the apostle 
Paul, did not affect excellency of speech, or 
flights of eloquence, (as the phrase sig- 
nifies,) but determined to know nothing, 
though amongst the most learned and po- 
lite, save Jesus Christ, even him that was 
crucified ; a conduct that is the more to 
be admired, when we consider how extra- 
ordinary a theme theirs was, and with what 
abundant variet}^ of most pathetic decla- 
mation it would easily have furnished any 
common writer ; so that one would really 
wonder how they could forbear it. But 
they rightly judged, that a vain affectation 
of ornament, when recording such a story 
as of their own knowledge, might perhaps 
have brought their sincerity into question, 
and so have rendered the cross of Christ of 
none effect. 

2. Their integrity does likewise evi- 
dently appear in the freedom with which 
they mention those circumstances, which 
might have exposed their Master and them- 
selves to the greatest contempt amongst 
prejudiced and inconsiderate men ; such 
as they knew they must generally expect 
to meet with.— As to their Master, they 
scruple not to own, that his country was 
infamous, his birth and education mean, 
and his life indigent; that he was most 
disdainfully rejected by the rulers, and ac- 
cused of sabbath-breaking, blasphemy, and 
sedition ; that he was reviled by the popu- 
lace as a debauchee, a lunatic, and a de- 
moniac ; and at last, by the united rage of 
both rulers and people, was publicly exe- 
cuted as the vilest of malefactors, with all 
imaginable circumstances of ignominy, 
scorn, and abhorrence ; nor do they scru- 
ple to own that terror and distress of spi- 
rit into which he was thrown by his suffer- 
ings, though this was a circumstance at 

which 



412 EVIDENCES OF 

which some of the heathens took the great- 
est offence, as utterly unworthy so excel- 
lent and divine a person. — As to them- 
selves, the apostles readily confess, not only 
the meanness of their original employ- 
ments, and the scandals of their former 
life, but their prejudices, their follies, and 
their faults, after Christ had honoured 
them with so holy a calling : they ac- 
knowledge their slowness of apprehension 
under so excellent a teacher, their unbe- 
lief, their cowardice, their ambition, their 
rash zeal, and their foolish contentions. 
So that, on the whole, they seem every 
where to forget that they are writing of 
themselves, and appear not at all solicitous 
about their own reputation, but only that 
they might represent the matter just as it 
was, whether they went through honour 
or dishonour, through evil report or good 
report. Nor is this all : for, 

2. It is certain, that there are in their 
writings the most genuine traces, not only 
of a plain and honest, but a most pious and 
devout, a most benevolent and generous, 
disposition. These appear especially in 
the epistolary parts of the New Testament, 
where indeed we should most reasonably 
expect to find them : and of these I may 
confidently affirm, that the greater pro- 
gress any one has made in love to God, 
in zeal for his glory, in a compassionate 
and generous concern for the present and 
future happiness of mankind ; the more 
humble, and candid, and temperate, and 
pure, he is ; the more ardently he loves 
truth, and the more steadily he is deter- 
mined to suffer the greatest extremity in its 
defence ; in a word, the more his heart is 
weaned from the present world, and the 
more it is fired with the prospects of a glo- 
rious immortality ; — the more pleasure will 
he take in reading those writings, the more 
will he relish the spirit which discovers it- 



CHRISTIANITY. 

self in them, and find, that as face answers 
to face in water, so do the traces of piety 
and goodness, which appear there, answer 
to those which a good man feels in his 
own soul. Nay, I will add, that the warm 
and genuine workings of that excellent and 
holy temper, which every where discovers 
itself in the New Testament, have for many 
ages been the most effectual means of 
spreading a spirit of virtue and piety in 
the world ; and what of it is to be found 
in these degenerate days seems principally 
owing to these incomparable and truly 
divine writings. 

Where then there are such genuine 
marks of an excellent character, not only 
in laboured discourses, but in epistolary 
writings, and those sometimes addressed to 
particular and intimate friends, to whom 
the mind naturally opens itself with the 
greatest freedom, surely no candid and 
equitable judge would lightly believe them 
to be all counterfeit ; or would imagine, 
without strong proof, that persons who 
breathe such exalted sentiments of virtue 
and piety should be guilty of any notori- 
ous wickedness : and in proportion to the 
degree of enormity and aggravation at- 
tending such a supposed crime, it may 
justly be expected, that the evidence of 
their having really committed it should be 
unanswerably strong and convincing. 

Now it is most certain, on the principle 
laid down above, that if the testimony of 
the apostles were false, they must have acted 
as detestable and villanous a part as one 
can easily conceive. To be found (as the 
apostle with his usual energy expresses it) 
false witnesses of God, 1 Cor. xv. 15. in 
any single instance, and solemnly to de- 
clare him miraculously to have done, what 
we know in our own consciences was never 
done at all, would be an audacious degree 
of impiety, to which none but the most 

aban- 



EVIDENCES OE 



CHRISTIANITY. 



413 



abandoned of mankind could arrive. Yet, 
if the testimony of the apostles was false, 
(as we have proved they could not be 
themselves mistaken in it) this must have 
been their conduct, and that not in one 
single instance only, but in a thousand. 
Their life must, in effect, be one continued 
and perpetual scene of perjury; and all 
the most solemn actions of it, (in which 
they were speaking to God, or speaking 
of him as the God and Eather of Christ, 
from whom they received their mission and 
powers,) must be a most profane and dar- 
ing insult on all the acknowledged perfec- 
tions of his nature. 

And the inhumanity of such a conduct 
would, on the whole, have been equal to its 
impiety : for it was deceiving men in their 
most important interests, and persuading 
them to venture their whole future hap- 
piness on the power and fidelity of one 
whom, on this supposition, they knew to 
have been an impostor, and justly to have 
suffered a capital punishment for his crimes. 

It would have been great guilt, to have 
given the hearts and devotions of men so 
wrong a turn, even though they had found 
magistrates ready to espouse and establish, 
yea, and to enforce, the religion they taught. 
But to labour to propagate it in the midst 
of the most vigorous and severe opposition 
from them, must equally enhance the guilt 
and folly of the undertaking : for by this 
means they made themselves accessary to 
the ruin of thousands ; and all the calami- 
ties which fell on such proselytes, or even 
on their remotest descendants, for the sake 
of Christianity, would be in a great measure 
chargeable on these first preachers of it. 
The blood of honest, yea, and (supposing 
them, as you must, to have been involun- 
tarily deceived,) of pious, worthy, and 
heroic persons, who might otherwise have 
been the greatest blessings to the public, 



would, in effect, be crying for vengeance 
against them : and the distresses of the 
widows and orphans, which those martyrs 
might leave behind them, would join to 
swell the account. 

So that, on the whole, the guilt of those 
malefactors who are from time to time the 
victims of public justice, even for robbery, 
murder, or treason, is small, when com- 
pared with that which we have now been 
supposing ; and corrupt as human nature 
is, it appears to me utterly improbable, 
that twelve men should be found, I will 
not say in one little nation, but even on 
the whole face of the earth, who could be 
capable of entering into so black a confe- 
deracy, on any terms whatsoever. 

And now, in this view of the case, make 
a serious pause, and compare with it what 
we have just been saying of the character 
of the apostles of Jesus, so far as an in- 
different person could conjecture it from 
their writings ; and then say, whether you 
can in your hearts believe them to have 
been those abandoned wretches, at once the 
reproach and astonishment of mankind ? 
You cannot surely believe such things of 
any, and much less of them, unless it shall 
appear they were in some peculiar circum- 
stances of strong temptation ; and what 
those circumstances could be, it is difficult 
even for imagination to conceive. 

But history is so far from suggesting any 
unthought-of fact to help our imagination 
on this head, that it bears strongty the 
contrary way ; and hardly any part of my 
work is easier than to shew, 

3. That they were under no temptation to 
forge a story of this kind, or to publish it 
to the world, knowing it to be false. 

They could reasonably expect no gain, 
no reputation, by it ; but on the contrary, 
5 M supposing 



414 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



supposing it an imposture, they must, with 
the most ordinary share of prudence, have 
foreseen infamy and ruin, as the certain 
consequences of attempting it. For the 

5 rand foundation of their scheme was, that 
esus of Nazareth, who was crucified at 
Jerusalem hy the Jewish rulers, was the 
Son of God, and the Lord of all things. 
I appeal to your consciences, whether this 
looks at all like the contrivance of artful 
and designing men. It was evidently charg- 
ing upon the princes of their country the 
most criminal and aggravated murder ; in- 
deed, all things considered, the most enor- 
mous act of wickedness which the sun had 
ever seen. They might therefore depend 
upon it, that these rulers would immediate- 
ly employ all their art and power to con- 
fute their testimony, and to destroy their 
persons. Accordingly, one of them was 
presently stoned, Acts vii. 59- and another 
quickly after beheaded, Acts xii. 2. and 
most of the rest were scattered abroad 
into strange cities, Acts viii. 1, 4. xi. 29- 
where they would be sure to be received 
with great prejudices raised against them 
among the Jews by reports from Jerusa- 
lem, and vastly strengthened by the expec- 
tations of a temporal Messiah ; expecta- 
tions which, as the apostles knew by their 
own experience, it was exceeding difficult 
to root out of men's minds ; expectations, 
which would render the doctrine of Christ 
crucified an insuperable stumbling-block 
to the Jews, 1 Cor. i. 23. 

Nor could they expect a much better 
reception amongst the Gentiles ; with 
whom their business was to persuade them 
to renounce the gods of their ancestors, 
and to depend on a person who had died 
the death of a malefactor and a slave ; to 
persuade them to forego the pompous ido- 
latries in which they had been educated, 
and all the sensual indulgences with which 



their religion (if it might be called a reli- 
gion) was attended, to worship one invi- 
sible God through one Mediator, in the 
most plain and simple manner ; and to re - 
ceive a set of precepts, most directly cal- 
culated to control and restrain, not only 
the enormities of men's actions, but the ir- 
regularities of their hearts. A most difficult 
undertaking ! And to engage them to this, 
they had no other arguments to bring but 
such as were taken from the views of an 
invisible state of happiness or misery, of 
which they asserted their crucified Jesus 
to be the supreme disposer ; who should 
another day dispense his blessings, or his 
vengeance, as the gospel had been em- 
braced or rejected. Now, could it be ima- 
gined, that men would easily be persuaded, 
merely on the credit of their affirmation 
or in compliance with their importunity 
to believe things which to their prejudiced 
minds would appear so improbable j and 
to submit to impositions, to their corrupt 
inclinations so insupportable? And if they 
could not persuade them to it, what could 
the apostles then expect? what, but to be 
insulted as fools or madmen, by one sort ot 
people ; and by another, to be persecuted 
with the most savage and outrageous cru- 
elty, as blasphemers of the gods, as sedu- 
cers of the people, and as disturbers of the 
public peace ? All which we know ac- 
cordingly happened : nay, they assure us, 
that their Lord had often warned them ot 
it ; and that they themselves expected it, 
and thought it necessary to admonish theii 
followers to expect it too ; and it appears . 
that far from drawing back upon that ac- 
count, as they would surely have done if 
they had been governed by secular motives, 
they became so much the more zealous 
and courageous, and encouraged eac'i 
other to resist even to blood. — Now, as this 
is a great evidence of the integrity and 

' P^ty 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



415 



piety of their character, and thus illustrates 
the former head ; so it serves to the purpose 
now immediately in view, i. e. it proves 
how improbable it is, that any person of 
common sense should engage in an im- 
posture, from which (as many have justly 
observed) they could, on their own prin- 
ciples, have nothing to expect, but ruin 
in this world, and damnation in the next. 
When, therefore, we consider, and compare 
their character and their circumstances, it 
appears utterly improbable, on various 
accounts, that they would have attempted 
in this article to impose upon the world. 
But suppose that in consequence of some 
unaccountable, as well as undiscoverable 
frenzy, they had ventured on the attempt, 
it is easy to shew, 

±. That, humanly speaking, they must quickly 
have perished in it, and their foolish cause 
must have died with them, without ever 
gaining any credit in the world. 

One may venture to say this in general, 
on the principles which I before laid down: 
but it appears still more evident, when we 
consider the nature of the fact they asserted, 
in conjunction with the methods they took 
to engage men to believe it; methods which, 
had the apostles been impostors, must have 
had the most direct tendency to ruin both 
their scheme and themselves. 

1 . Let us a little more particularly reflect 
on the nature of that grand fact, the death, 
resurrection, and exaltation, of Christ ; 
which, as I observed, was the great founda- 
tion of the Christian scheme, as first exhibi- 
ted by the apostles.— The resurrection of a 
dead man, and his ascension into and abode 
in the upper world, was so strange a thing, 
that a thousand objections would immedi- 
ately be raised against it ; and some extra- 
ordinary proof would justly be required, as 



a balance to them. Now I wish the reject- 
ers of the gospel would set themselves to 
invent some hypothesis, which should have 
any appearance of probability, to phew 
how such an amazing story should ever 
gain credit in the world, if it had not some 
very convincing proof. Where and when 
could it first begin to be received? was 
it in the same, or a succeeding age ? was 
it at Jerusalem, the spot of ground on 
which it is said to have happened, or in 
Greece, or Italy, or Asia, or Africa ? You 
may change the scene, and the time, as 
you please, but you cannot change the 
difficulty. 

Take it in a parallel instance. Suppose 
twelve men in London were now to affirm 
that a person, executed there as a malefac- 
tor in a public manner a month or six 
weeks ago, or if you please a year, or five, 
or ten years since, (for it is much the same, ) 
was a prophet sent from God with extraor- 
dinary powers; that he was raised from the 
dead ; that they conversed with him after 
his revival, and at last saw him taken up 
into heaven : would their united testimony 
make them be believed there ? — Or sup- 
pose them, if you please, to disperse, and 
that one or two of them should come hither, 
and go on to more distant places, sup- 
pose Leicester, Nottingham, or York, and 
tell their story there ; and that others were 
to carry it over to Paris, or Amsterdam, or 
to Vienna, or Madrid ; could they expect 
any more credit with us, or with them, or 
hope for any thing better, than to be look- 
ed upon as lunatics, and treated as such. 
And if they should go into other places, 
and attempt to mend their scheme, by 
saying their master was put to death 100 
or 200 years ago, when there could be no 
historical evidence of it discovered, and no 
proof given but their own confident asser- 
tion : would they remove, or would they 

not 



416 EVIDENCES OF 

not rather increase, the difficulty? — Or 
would they, in any of these cases, gain cre- 
dit by the most dexterous tricks of leger- 
demain, of which you can suppose them 
masters ; especially if they should under- 
take, in consequence of such supposed 
facts, to engage men to renounce the reli- 
gion in which they had been educated ; to 
deny themselves in their dearest passions, 
and most important worldly interests ; and 
even probably to hazard their liberties and 
their lives, in dependence on a future re- 
ward, to be received in a place and state 
which no man living on earth had ever 
seen or known ? You would readily allow 
this to be an insupposable case : and why 
should you suppose it to have happened 
sixteen or seventeen hundred years ago ? 
You may assure yourselves, that the reason 
and the passion of mankind were then as 
strong as they are now. But let us a little 
more particularly consider, 

2. The manner in which the apostles 
undertook to prove the truth of their testi- 
mony to this fact : and it will evidently 
appear, that instead of confirming their 
scheme, it must have been sufficient utterly 
to have overthrown it, had it been itself the 
most probable imposture that the wit of 
man could ever have contrived. — You 
know, they did not merely assert that they 
had seen miracles wrought by this Jesus, 
but that he had endowed themselves with 
a variety of miraculous powers. And these 
they undertook to display, not in such idle 
and useless tricks as sleight of hand might 
perform, but in such solid and important 
works as appeared worthy a divine inter- 
position, and entirely superior to human 
power ; restoring, as they pretend, sight 
to the blind, soundness to lepers, activity 
to the lame, and, in some instances, life 
to the dead. Nor were these things under- 
taken in a corner, in a circle of friends 



CHRISTIANITY. 

or dependents ; nor were they said to be 
wrought on such as might be suspected of 
being confederates in the fraud ; but they 
were done often in the public streets, in 
the sight of enemies, on the persons of 
such as were utter strangers to the apostles, 
but sometimes well known to neighbours 
and spectators, as having long laboured 
under these calamities, to human skill 
utterly incurable. Would impostors have 
made such pretensions as these ? or if they 
had, must they not immediately have been 
exposed and ruined ? 

Nor is there any room at all to object, 
that perhaps the apostles might not under- 
take to do these things on the spot, but 
only assert they had done them elsewhere ; 
for even then it would have been impossi- 
ble they should have gained credit ; and 
they would have seemed the less credible, 
on account of such a pretence. Whatever 
appearances there might have been of gra- 
vity, integrity, and piety, in the conversa- 
tion of Peter, (for instance,) very few, es- 
pecially few that had known but little of 
him, would have taken it upon his word, 
that he saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the 
dead at Bethany ; but fewer yet would have 
believed it upon his affirmation, had it 
been ever so solemn, that he had himself 
raised Dorcas at Joppa; unless he had 
done some extraordinary work before them 
correspondent at least, if not equal, to that. 
You will easily think of invincible objec- 
tions, which otherwise might have been 
made ; and, undoubtedly, the more such 
assertions had been multiplied, every new 
person, and scene, and fact, had been an 
additional advantage given to the enemy, 
to have detected and confuted the whole 
scheme, which Peter and his associates had 
thus endeavoured to establish. 

But to come still closer to the point : if 
the New Testament be genuine, (as I have 

already 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



417 



already proved it) then it is certain that 
the apostles pretended to have wrought 
miracles in the very presence of those to 
whom their writings were addressed ; nay 
more, they profess likewise to have con- 
ferred those miraculous gifts, in some con- 
siderable degrees, on others, even on the 
very persons to whom they write ; and 
they appeal to their consciences as to the 
truth of it. And could there possibly be 
room for delusion here ? It is exceedingly 
remarkable to this purpose, that Paul makes 
this appeal to the Corinthians, and Gala- 
tians, when there were amongst them some 
persons disaffected to him, who were tak- 
ing all opportunities to sink his character, 
and destroy his influence : and could they 
have washed for a better opportunity, than 
such an appeal ? An appeal which, had 
not the fact it supposed been certain, far 
from recovering those that were wavering 
in their esteem, must have been sufficient 
utterly to disgust his most cordial and 
steady friends. — And the same remark may 
be applied to the advices and reproofs, 
which the apostles there gives, relating to 
the use and abuse of their spiritual gifts ; 
which had been most notoriously absurd, 
and even ridiculous, had not the Christians 
to whom he wrote been really possessed of 
them. And these gifts were so plainly su- 
pernatural, that (as it has often been ob- 
served) if it be allowed that miracles can 
prove a divine revelation, and that the 
first epistle to the Corinthians be genuine, 
(of which, by the way, there is at least as 
pregnant evidence as that any part of the 
New Testament is so,) then it follows by a 
sure and easy consequence, that Christi- 
anity is true. Nevertheless, other argu- 
ments are not to be forgot in this survey. — 
And, therefore, as I have proved under 
this head, that had the testimony of the 
apostles been false, it is not to be ima- 



gined that they could have gained credit 
at all ; and especially when they had put 
the proof of their cause on such a footing, 
as we are sure they did ; I am now to shew 
you, 

5. That it is certain in fact, that the apostles 
did gain early credit, and succeeded in a 
most wonderful manner; from whence 
it will follow, that their testimony was 
true. 

That the apostles did indeed gain credit 
in the world, is evident from (what I be- 
fore offered to prove) the early prevalence 
of Christianity in it ; and may further be 
confirmed from many passages in the New 
Testament. And here, I insist not so 
much on express historical testimonies, 
(though some of them are very remarkable, 
especially that of the brethren at Jerusa- 
lem, who speak of many myriads of be- 
lieving Jews assembled at the feast of Pen- 
tecost) but I argue from the epistles writ- 
ten to several churches, which plainly 
prove, that there were congregations of 
Christians in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Co- 
losse, Thessalonica, Phillippi, Laodicea, 
Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Phi- 
ladelphia, Crete, Pontus, C alalia, Cappa- 
docia, Asia, and Bithynia, and many other 
places ; insomuch that one of the apostles 
could say, that Christ had so wrought by 
him, to make the Gentiles obedient, not 
only in word or profession, but in deed too, 
that from Jerusalem, even round about 
unto Illyricum, he had fully preached the 
gospel of Christ ; or, as the word imports, 
had accomplished the purposes of it. And 
there is a great deal of reason, both from 
the nature of the thing, and from the testi- 
mony of ancient history, to believe that 
others of the apostles had considerable suc- 
cess elsewhere ; so that Paul might with 
5 N reason 



418 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



reason apply to them and their doctrine, 
what is originally spoken of the luminaries 
of heaven, and the instruction they com- 
municate, " Their line is gone out thro' all 
the earth, and their words to the ends of 
the world." 

So great was the number of those who 
were proselyted to Christianity by the 
preaching of the apostles : and we have all 
imaginable reason to believe, that there 
were none of these proselytes but what 
were fully persuaded of the truth of the 
testimony they bore ; for otherwise no 
imaginable reason can be given for their 
entering themselves into such a profession. 
The apostles had no secular terrors to 
affright them, no secular rewards to bribe 
them, no dazzling eloquence to enchant 
them: on the contrary, all these were in a 
powerful manner pleading against the apos- 
tles; yet their testimony was received, and 
their new converts were so thoroughly satis- 
tied with the evidence which they gave 
them of their mission, that they encounter- 
ed great persecutions, and cheerfully ven- 
tured estate, liberty, and life itself, on the 
truth of the facts they asserted ; as plainly 
appears from many passages in the epistles, 
which none can think the apostles would 
have ever writ, if these first Christians had 
not been in a persecuted condition. 

Nor will it signify any thing to object, 
that most of these converts were persons of 
a low rank, and ordinary education, who 
therefore might be more easily imposed 
upon than others: for (not to mention 
Sergius Paulus, Dionysius the Areopagite, 
or the domestics of Cesar's household, 
with others of superior stations in life,) it 



is sufficient to remind you, that, as I have 
largely shewn, the apostles did not put 
their cause on the issue of laboured argu- 
ments, in which the populace might quickly 
have been entangled and lost, but on such 
plain facts as they might judge of as easily 
and surely as any others; indeed, on what 
they themselves saw, and in part too on 
what they felt. 

Now, I apprehend, this might be suffi- 
cient to bring the matter to a satisfactory 
conclusion. You have seen, that as there 
is no reason to believe that the apostles, 
who certainly knew the truth, would have 
attempted a fraud of this kind ; — so if they 
had attempted it, they could not possibly 
have succeeded ; — nevertheless, they did 
succeed in a very remarkable manner ; 
—whence it plainly follows, that what they 
testified was true. 

And now then after this, the reasonable- 
ness of receiving the gospel, on admitting 
the truth of what they testified concerning 
Christ, is an easy consequence. — Yet some 
things are to be offered under this head, 
which are of great weight, and would not 
so conveniently have fallen under any of 
the former ; and some considerable addi- 
tional evidence to the truth of Christianity 
arises from what has happened in the world 
since its first propagation. And therefore I 
choose rather to make a distinct discourse 
on these, with the improvement of the 
whole, than to throw together the hints of 
them in so hasty a manner as I must do, 
should I attempt to dispatch the subject in 
this discourse, the just limits of which 1 
have already transgressed, lest the great 
chain of the argument should be broken. 



SERMON 



SERMON III. 



ADDITIONAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, AND REFLECTIONS 

ON THE WHOLE. 



We have not followed cunningly devised fables. 2 Pet. i. 16. 



A S I had before proved the books of the 
New Testament to be genuine, I pro- 
ceeded in my last discourse to argue from 
thence the certain truth of the Christian 
revelation ; and we have made some con- 
siderable progress in the argument. 

The matter, in short, stands thus. — The 
authors of the New Testament certainly 
knew whether the facts they asserted were 
true or false ; so that they could not them- 
selves be deceived ; neither can we think 
they would attempt to deceive others, since 
they appear by their manner of writing to 
have been persons of great integrity and 
goodness ; — and it is likewise evident they 
could have no temptation to attempt a 
fraud of this nature : — however, if they had 
attempted it, we cannot imagine they could 
have gained credit in the world, if the facts 
they asserted had not been true ; — never- 
theless, they did gain credit in a very re- 
markable manner ; from whence it plainly 
follows, that those facts were true. — Now 
I am to shew farther, to complete the proof 
of our grand proposition, 

6. That admitting the facts which they testi- 
fied concerning Christ to be true, then it 
was reasonable for their contemporaries, and 
is reasonable for us, to receive the gospel 
which they have transmitted to us, as a 
Divine revelation . 



The great thing they asserted was, that 
Jesus was the Christ, and that he was 
proved to be so, — by prophecies accom- 
plished in him, and by miracles wrought 
by him, and by others in his name. Let 
us attend to each of these, and I am per- 
suaded we shall find them no contemptible 
arguments ; but must be forced to acknow- 
ledge, that the premises being established, 
the conclusion most easily and necessarily 
follows ; and this conclusion, that Jesus is 
the Christ, taken in all its extent, is an ab- 
stract of the gospel revelation, and there- 
fore is sometimes put for the whole of it. 

The apostles, especially when disputing 
with the Jews, did frequently argue from 
"the prophecies of the Old Testament?" 
in which, they say, many things were ex- 
pressly foretold, which were most literally 
and exactly fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. 
Now, greatly to the evidence, confirmation, 
and advantage of Christianity, so it is, that 
these prophecies are to this day extant in 
their original language ; and this in the 
hands of a people most implacably averse 
to the gospel ; so that an attentive reader 
may still, in a great measure, satisfy him- 
self as to the validity of the argument 
drawn from them. 

On searching these ancient and impor- 
tant records, we find not only in the ge- 
neral that God intended to raise up for his 

people 



420 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



people an illustrious deliverer, who, amongst 
other glorious titles, is sometimes called the 
Messiah, or the Anointed One : but we are 
more particularly told, that this great event 
should happen before the government 
ceased in the tribe of Judah ; while the 
second temple was standing ; and a little 
before its destruction, about 490 years after 
a command given to rebuild Jerusalem; 
which was probably issued out in the se- 
venth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, or at 
least within a few years before or after it. — 
It is predicted, that he should be of the seed 
of Abraham, born of a virgin, of the house 
of David, in the town of Bethlehem ; that 
he should be anointed with an extraordi- 
nary effusion of the Divine Spirit, in virtue 
of which he should not only be a perfect 
and illustrious example of universal holi- 
ness and goodness, but should also perform 
many extraordinary and beneficial mira- 
cles : nevertheless, that for want of exter- 
nal pomp and splendour he should be re- 
jected and insulted by the Jews, and at 
length be cut off and slain by them. It 
is added, that he should rise from the dead 
before his body should be corrupted in the 
grave, and should be received up to hea- 
ven, and there seated at the right hand of 
God; from whence he should, in a won- 
derful manner, pour out his Spirit on his 
followers: in consequence of which, though 
the body of the Jewish people perished in 
their obstinate opposition to him, yet the 
Gentiles should be brought to the know- 
ledge of the true God, and a kingdom es- 
tablished amongst them, which from small 
beginnings should spread itself to the ends 
of the earth, and continue to the remotest 
ages. 

Besides these most material circumstan- 
ces, there were several others relating to 
him, which were either expressly foretold, j 
or at least hinted at ; all which, with those I 



already mentioned, had so evident an ac- 
complishment in Jesus, (allowing the truth 
of the facts which the apostles testified con- 
cerning him,) that we have no reason to 
wonder, that they should receive the word 
with all readiness, who searched the scrip- 
tures daily whether these things were so 
predicted there, as the apostles affirmed. 
For I am persuaded, that no wise and 
religious man could imagine, that God 
would permit an imposter to arise, in whom 
so great a variety of predictions, delivered 
by so many different persons, and in so 
many distant ages, should have an exact 
accomplishment. 

When the apostles were preaching to 
heathens, it is indeed true that they gene- 
rally waved the argument from prophecy, 
because they were not so capable judges of 
it : but when they insist on another, which 
might as soon captivate their belief, and as 
justly vindicate it ; I mean, " the miracles 
performed by Christ, and those commis- 
sioned and influenced by him." Many of 
these were of such a nature, as not to ad- 
mit of any artifice or deceit ; especially, 
that most signal one of his resurrection 
from the dead, which I may call a miracle 
performed by, as well as upon, Christ; be- 
cause he so expressly declares, that he had 
himself a power to resume his life at plea- 
sure. The apostles well knew this was 
a fact of such a nature, that they who 
believed this would never doubt of the 
rest; they therefore often single this out, 
and lay the whole stress of their cause 
upon it. This they proved to be true by 
their own testimony miraculously con- 
firmed ; and in proving this, they esta- 
blish Christianity on an impregnable rock. 
For I may safely refer it to any of you to 
judge, whether it is an imaginable thing 
that God should raise the dead body of 
an imposter? especially w T hen he had 

solemnly 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



421 



? olemnly appealed to such a resurrection as 
the grand proof of his mission, and had ex- 
pressly fixed the very day it was to happen. 
I persuade myself you are convinced by 
all this, that they who on the apostles' tes- 
timony believed that the prophecies of the 
Old Testament were accomplished in Jesus, 
and that God bore witness to him by mira- 
cles, and raised him from the dead, had 
abundant reason to believe that the doctrine 
which Christ taught was divine, and his 
gospel a revelation from heaven. And if 
they had reason to admit this conclusion, 
then it is plain, that we who have such sa- 
tisfactory evidence on the one hand that 
the testimony of the apostles was credible, 
and on the other that this was the substance 
of it, have reason also to admit this grand 
inference from it, and to embrace the gos- 
pel as a faithful saying, and as well worthy 
of all acceptation. This is the thing I was 
attempting to prove ; and here I should 
end the argument, were it not for the con- 
firmation-it may receive from some addi- 
tional considerations, which could not pro- 
perly be introduced under any of the pre- 
ceding heads. I add, therefore, 

7. In the last place, That the truth of the gos- 
pel has received farther and very consider- 
able confirmation, from what has happened 
in the world since it was first published. 

And here I must desire you more par- 
ticularly to consider, — on the one hand, 
what God has been doing to establish it ; — 
and on the other, the methods which its 
enemies have taken to destroy it. 
1. Consider what God has been doing to con- 
firm the gospel since its first publication, and 
you will find it a farther evidence of its 
divine original. 

I might here argue at large, from its sur- 
prising propagation in the world ; — from 
the miraculous powers with which not 



only the apostles, but succeeding preach- 
ers of the gospel, and other converts, were 
endowed ; — from the accomplishment of 
prophecies recorded in the New Testa- 
ment ; — and from the preservation of the 
Jews as a distinct people, notwithstanding 
the various difficulties and persecutions 
through which they have passed. 

I might particularly urge, in confirma- 
tion of the truth of Christianity, " the won- 
derful success with which it was attended, 
and the surprising propagation of the gos- 
pel in the world/' 

I have before endeavoured under a for- 
mer head to shew you, that the gospel met 
with so favourable a reception in the world, 
as evidently proved, that its first publish- 
ers were capable of producing such evi- 
dence of its truth as an imposture could 
not admit. But now I carry the remark 
farther, and assert, that considering the cir- 
cumstances of the case, it is amazing that 
even truth itself, under so many disadvan- 
tages, should have so illustrious a triumph ; 
and that its wonderful success does evident- 
ly argue such an extraordinary interposi- 
tion of God in its favour, as may justly be 
called a miraculous attestation to it. 

There was not only one of a family, or 
two of a city, taken and brought to Zion ; 
but so did the Lord hasten it in its ap- 
pointed time, that a little one became a 
thousand, and a small one a strong nation. 
And as the apostles themselves were ho- 
noured with very remarkable success, so 
this divine seed was propagated so fast in 
the next age, that Pliny testifies, "he 
found the heathen temples in Achaia al- 
most deserted/' and Tertullian afterwards 
boasts, " that all places but those temples 
were filled with Christians ; so that were 
they only to withdraw, cities and provin- 
ces would be depopulated." Nor did the 
gospel only triumph thus within the boun- 

5 O daries 



422 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



daries of the Roman empire ; for long be- 
fore Tertullian was born, Justin Martyr, in 
his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, which 
seems to have been written not much 
above 100 years after Christ's death, de- 
clares, " that there was no nation of men, 
whether Greeks or Barbarians, not except- 
ing those savages that wandered in clans 
from one region to another, and had no 
fixed habitation, who had not learnt to 
offer prayers and thanksgivings to the 
Father and Maker of all, in the name of 
Jesus who was crucified." 

Now how can we account for such a 
scene as this, but by saying, that the hand 
of the Lord was with the first preachers of 
the gospel, and therefore such multitudes 
believed, and turned unto the Lord ? How 
had it been possible, that so small a foun- 
tain should presently have swelled into a 
mighty river, and even have covered the 
face of the earth, had it not sprung from 
the sanctuary of God, and been rendered 
thus triumphant by his almighty arm? 

Had this new religion, so directly con- 
trary to all the prejudices of education, 
been contrived to soothe men's vices, to 
assert their errors, to defend their supersti- 
tions, or to promote their secular interests, 
we might easily have accounted for its 
prevalence in the world. Had its preach- 
ers been very profound philosophers, or 
polite and fashionable orators, man} r might 
have been charmed, at least for a while, 
to follow them ; or had the princes and 
potentates of the eartn declared them- 
selves its patrons, and armed their legions 
for its defence and propagation, multitudes 
might have been terrified into the profes- 
sion, though not a soul could by such 
means have been rationally persuaded to 
the belief of it. But without some such 
advantages as these, we can hardly con- 
ceive how any new religion should so 



strangely prevail ; even though it had crept 
into the world in its darkest ages and most 
barbarous countries, and though it had been 
gradually proposed in the most artful man- 
ner, with the finest vail industriously drawn 
over every part which might at first have 
given disgust to the beholder. 

But you well know, that the very re- 
verse of all this was the case here. You 
know, from the apparent constitution of 
Christianity, that the lusts and errors, the 
superstitions and interests, of carnal men, 
would immediately rise up against it as a 
most irreconcileable enemy. You know, 
that the learning and wit of the Greeks and 
the Romans were early employed to over- 
bear and ridicule it. You know, that as 
all the herd of heathen deities were to be 
discarded, the priests, who subsisted on 
that craft, must in interest find themselves 
obliged to oppose it. You know, that the 
princes of the earth drew their swords 
against it, and armed torments and death 
for the destruction of its followers. Ana 
yet you see that it triumphed over all, tho' 
published in ages and places of the great- 
est learning and refinement, and proposed, 
not in an ornamental and artificial manner, 
but with the utmost plainness ; the doc- 
trines of the cross being always avowed as 
its grand fundamentals, though so notorious 
a stumbling-block both to Jews and Gen- 
tiles ; and the absolute necessity, not only 
of embracing Christianity, but also of re- 
nouncing all idol worship, being insisted 
on immediately and in the strongest terms, 
though it must make the gospel appear the 
most singular and unsocial religion that 
had ever been taught in the world. 

Had one of the wits or politicians of 
these ages seen the apostles, and a few 
other plain men, who had been educated 
among the lowest of the people, as most 
of the first teachers of Christianity were, 

going 



EVIDENCES OF 



CHRISTIANITY. 



423 



going out armed with nothing but faith, 
truth, and goodness, to encounter the 
power of princes, the bigotry of priests, 
the learning of philosophers, the rage of 
the populace, and the prejudices of all ; 
how would he have derided the attempt, 
and said with Sanballat, Neh. iv. 2. What 
will these feeble Jews do ? But had he 
seen the event, surely he must have owned 
with the Egyptian magi, Eiod. viii. 19- in 
a far less illustrious miracle, that it was 
the finger of God ; and might justly have 
fallen on his face, even amongst those whom 
he had insulted, with an humble acknow- 
ledgment that God was in them of a truth. 

I might here further urge " those mira- 
cles which were wrought in confirmation of 
the Christian doctrine, for a considerable 
time after the death of the apostles." 

The most signal and best attested of 
these, was the dispossessing of devils; whom 
God seems to have permitted to rage with 
unusual violence about those times, that 
his Son's triumph over them might be so 
much the more remarkable, and that the 
old serpent might be taken in his own craf- 
tiness. I doubt not but many of you have 
heard that more than two hundred years 
after the death of Christ, some of the most 
celebrated defenders of the gospel which 
the church has in any age produced, I mean 
Tertullian, and Minutius Felix, do not only 
challenge any of their heathen enemies 
ind persecutors to bring them a demoniac, 
engaging, at the hazard of their lives, to 
oblige the evil spirit, in the name and by 
the authority of Christ, to quit his posses- 
sion ; but do also appeal to it, as a fact 
publicly known, that those who were agi- 
tated by such spirits, stood terrified and 
amazed in the presence of a Christian, and 
that their pretended gods were forced then 
to own themselves devils. 

I wave the testimonies of some later 



writers of the Christian church, lest the 
credulity of their temper, joined with the 
circumstances attending some of the facts 
they record, should furnish out objections 
against their testimony ; though I think 
we cannot, without great injustice to the 
character of the learned and pious Augus- 
tin, suspect the truth of some amazing facts 
of this kind, which he has attested as of 
his own personal certain knowledge. 

Nor must I on this occasion forget to 
mention the accomplishment of several 
prophecies recorded " in the New Testa- 
ment," as a farther confirmation given by 
God to the gospel. 

The most eminent and singular instance 
under this head, is that of our Lord's pre- 
diction concerning the destruction of Je- 
rusalem, as it is recorded by St. Matthew, 
in his twenty-fourth chapter. The tragical 
history of it is most circumstantially de- 
scribed by Josephus, a Jewish priest, who 
was an eye-witness of it : and the descrip- 
tion he has given of this sad calamity so ex- 
actly corresponds to the prophecy, that one 
would have thought, had we not known 
the contrary, that it had been written by a 
Christian on purpose to illustrate it ; and 
one can never enough admire that series of 
amazing providences by which the author 
was preserved from the most imminent dan- 
ger, that he might leave us that invaluable 
treasure which his writings contain. 

We have no need of any farther evi- 
dence than we find in him, of the exact 
accomplishment of what was prophesied 
concerning the destruction of J erusalem : 
but our Lord had also foretold the long- 
continued desolation of their temple ; and 
I cannot forbear reminding you of the 
awful sanction that was given to that part 
of the prediction : for it is well known, 
that a heathen historian has assured us, 
that when Julian the apostate, in delibe- 
rate 



424 EVIDENCES OF 

rate contempt of that prediction, solemnly 
and resolutely undertook to rebuild it, his 
impious design was miraculously frustrated 
again and again, and the workmen con- 
sumed by globes of fire, which broke out 
from the foundations. 

The prediction of St. Paul concerning 
the man of sin, and the apostasy of the 
latter times, 2 Thess. iii. 3 — 12. 1 Tim. iv. 
1 — 3. is also well worthy of our remark. 
And though a great deal of the book of 
Revelation be still concealed under a dark 
vail; yet the division of the Roman em- 
pire into ten kingdoms, the usurpation, 
persecutions, and idolatry, of the Romish 
church, and the long duration of the pa- 
pal power, with several other extraordinary 
events, which no human prudence could 
have foreseen, and which have happened 
long since the publication of that book, 
are so clearly foretold there, that I cannot 
but look on that part of scripture as an 
invaluable treasure ; and think it not at all 
improbable, that the more visible accom- 
plishment of some of its other prophecies 
may be a great means of reviving the 
Christian cause, which is at present so 
much on the decline. 

" The preservation of the Jews as a dis- 
tinct people," is another particular under 
this head, which well deserves our atten- 
tive regard. 

It is plain they are vastly numerous, 
notwithstanding all the slaughter and de- 
traction of this people in former, and in 
iter ages. They are dispersed in various 
lost distant nations, and particularly in 
hose parts of the world where Christianity 
s professed : and though they are exposed 
.o great hatred and contempt, on account 
of their different faith, and in most places 
subjected to civil incapacities, if not to un- 
christian severities ; yet they are still most 
obstinately tenacious of their religion : 



CHRISTIANITY. 

which is the more wonderful, as their fa- 
thers were so prone to apostatize from it ; 
and as most of them seem to be utter stran- 
gers either to piety or humanity, and pour 
out the greatest contempt on the moral 
precepts of their own law, while they are 
so attached to the ceremonial institutions 
of it, troublesome and inconvenient as they 
are. Now seriously reflect, what an evi- 
dent hand of Providence is here ; that by 
their dispersion, preservation, and adhe- 
rence to their religion, it should come to 
pass, that Christians should daily see the 
accomplishment of many remarkable pro- 
phecies concerning this people ; and that 
we should always have amongst us such a 
crowd of unexceptionable witnesses to the 
truth of those ancient Hebrew records, on 
which so much of the evidence of the gos- 
pel depends; records which are many of 
them so full to the purpose for which we 
allege them, that, as a celebrated writer 
very well observes, (Sped. vol. iii. No. 
495.) " had the whole body of the Jew- 
ish nation been converted to Christianity, 
men would certainly have thought they 
had been forged by Christians, and have 
looked upon them, with the prophecies of 
the Sybils, as made many years after the 
events they pretend to foretell." And to 
add no more here, the preservation of the 
Jews as a distinct people, evidently leaves 
room for the accomplishment of those Old 
and New Testament promises, which re- 
late to their national conversion and resto- 
ration ; whereas that would be impossible 
in itself, or at least be impossible to be 
known, if they were promiscuously blend- 
ed with other people : on the whole, it is 
such a scene in the conduct of Providence, 
as I am well assured cannot be paralleled 
in the history of any other nation on earth, 
and affords a most obvious and important 
argument in favour of the gospel. 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY 



Thus has Christianity been further con- 
firmed, since its first publication, by what 
God has done to establish it. It only re- 
mains that we consider, 

2. What confirmation it receives, from the 
methods which its enemies have taken to de- 
stroy it. 

And these have generally been, either 
persecution, or falsehood, or cavilling at 
some particulars in the revelation, without 
entering into the grand argument on which 
it is built, and fairly debating what is of- 
fered in its defence. Now who would not 
think the better of a cause, for being thus 
attacked? 

At first you know, that the professors, 
and especially the preachers, of the gospel, 
were severely persecuted. In every city, 
bonds and imprisonments awaited them. 
As soon as ever the apostles began to preach 
Jesus and his resurrection, the Jewish ru- 
lers laid hold on them, and, having con- 
fined and scourged them, strictly prohibited 
their speaking any more in that name. A 
little while after, Stephen was murdered ; 
and afterwards James, and some others of 
the apostles. Now certainly such a con- 
duct did evidently shew a consciousness, 
that they were not able to answer the apos- 
tles, and to support their own cause by the 
fair methods of reason and argument ; to 
which, so far as the historian informs us, 
they made no pretence ; but attempted to 
bear them down by dint of authority, and 
silence them by brutal force. 

The time w T ould fail me, should I at- 
tempt particularly to shew, how these un- 
righteous methods were pursued in succeed- 
ing ages, and distinct countries. The sa- 
vage cruelties of Nero to these innocent 
and holy men, were such as raised the pity 
even of their enemies ; yet this was one of 



425 

the least extensive and destructive of the 
ten general persecutions which arose in 
the Roman empire, besides several others 
in the neighbouring countries, of which 
ecclesiastical history informs us. 

These early enemies of the gospel add- 
ed falsehood and slanders to their inhu- 
manities. They endeavoured to murder 
the reputations of the Christians, as well 
as their persons, and were not ashamed to 
represent them as haters of the whole hu- 
man species, for no imaginable reason but 
because they would not associate them- 
selves in their idolatrous worship, but, with 
regard to charity and truth, were strongly 
bearing their testimony against it: nay, 
they charged them with human sacrifices, 
incest, idolatry, and all the crimes for 
which themselves and their foolish gods 
were indeed justly detestable ; but from 
which the Christians knew how to vindi- 
cate themselves, highly to their own ho- 
nour, arid to the everlasting reproach of 
these malignant and pestilent accusers : and 
they have not failed to do it in many noble 
apologies, which through the Divine pro- 
vidence are transmitted to us, and are in- 
camparably the most valuable of any an- 
cient uninspired writings. 

Such were the infamous and scandalous 
methods, by which the gospel was opposed 
in the earliest ages of the church; and I 
cannot forbear adding, " that the measures 
more lately taken to subvert it, especially 
amongst ourselves, seem to me rather to 
reflect a glory upon it." Its unhappy 
enemies have been told again and again, 
that we put the proof of it on plain fact. 
They themselves do not, and cannot, deny 
that it prevailed early in the world, as we 
have shewn at large. There must have 
been some man, or body of men, who 
first introduced it : they generally confess, 
that Christ and his apostles were the per- 
5 P sons ; 



426 EVIDENCES OF 

sons ; and these apostles (on whose testi- 
mony what we know of Christ chiefly de- 
pends) must have been enthusiasts or im- 
postors, if their testimony was false. Now 
which of these schemes will the unbeliever 
take ? It seems, that the Deists of the pre- 
sent age fix on neither, as being secretly 
conscious they can support neither ; but 
they content themselves with cavilling at 
some circumstances attending: the revela- 
tion, without daring; to encounter its grand 
evidence : i. e. they have been laboriously 
attempting to prove it '• to be improbable, 
or absurd, to suppose that to have been, 
which nevertheless plainly appears to have 
been fact." One most weakly and sophis- 
tically pretends to prove, in defiance of 
the common sense of mankind, that the 
light of nature is a perfect rule, and there- 
fore that all revelation is needless, and in- 
deed impossible. Another disguises the 
miracles of Christ by false and foolish re- 
presentations of them, and then sets him- 
self to ridicule them as idle tales. And a 
third takes a great deal of fruitless pains to 
shew, that some prophecies referred to in 
the New Testament are capable of another 
sense, different from that in which the 
apostles have taken them. These things 
have been set in a very artful and falla- 
cious light by persons, whose names will 
be perhaps transmitted to posterity, with 
the infamous glory of having been leaders 
in the cause of infidelity ; but not a man 
of them undertakes directly to answer 
what has been said to ascertain the grand 
fact. Nay, they generally take no more 
notice of the positive evidence, by which 
it is even demonstrated, than if they had 
never heard it proposed ; though they cavil 
at incidental passages in those books, in 
which it is most clearly stated. And as 
for what they have urged, — though perhaps 
some, who were before weary of Christi- 



CHRISTIANITY. 

anity, may have taken occasion from their 
writings to reject it; and others, for want 
of consulting the answers to them, may 
have been unwarily ensnared ; — yet the ex- 
amination of these points has been greatly 
to the honour and vindication of the truth, 
which seems on this occasion to have been 
set in a clearer and stronger light than 
ever, at least in these latter ages. 

The cause of Christianity has greatly 
gained by debate, and the gospel comes 
like fine gold out of the furnace, which the 
more it is tried, the more it is approved. 
I own the defenders of the gospel have 
appeared with very different degrees of 
ability for the work ; nor could it be other- 
wise amongst such numbers of them s but 
on the whole, though the patrons of infi- 
delity have been masters of some wit, hu- 
mour, and address, as well as of a mode- 
rate share of learning, and generally much 
more than a moderate share of assurance ; 
yet so great is the force of truth, that (un- 
less we may except those writers who 
have unhappily called for the aid of the 
civil magistrate in the controversy,) I can- 
not recollect, that I have seen any defence 
of the gospel, which has not, on the whole, 
been sufficient to establish it, notwithstand- 
ing all the sophistical arguments of its most 
subtle antagonists. 

[This is an observation, which is con- 
tinually gaining new strength, as new as- 
saults are made upon the gospel. And I 
cannot forbear saying, that, as if it were by 
a kind of judicial infatuation, some who 
have distinguished themselves in the wretch- 
ed cause of infidelity, have been permitted 
to fall into such gross misrepresentations, 
such senseless inconsistencies, and such pal- 
pable falsehoods, and, in a word, into such 
a various and malignant superfluity of 
naughtiness, that to a wise and pious mind 
they must appear like those venomous 

creatures, 



EVIDENCES OF 

creatures, which are said to carry an anti- i 
dote in their bowels against their own poi- j 
son. A virtuous and well-bred Deist must i 
turn away from some modern pieces of 
this kind with scorn and abhorrence ; and 
a Christian might almost be tempted to 
wish, that the books, with all their scan- 
dals about them, might be transmitted to 
posterity, lest when they come to live, like 
the writings of some of the ancient hea- 
thens, only in those of their learned and i 
pious answerers, it should hardly be cre- 
dited, that ever the enemies of the gospel, 
in such an enlightened age, should be ca- 
pable of so much impiety and folly.] 

Thus I have given you a brief view of 
the chief arguments in proof of Christiani- 
ty ; and the sum of the whole is this : — 

The gospel is probable in theory ; as, 
considering the nature of God, and the 
circumstances of mankind, there was rea- 
son to hope a revelation might be given : 
and if any were given, we should natu- 
rally apprehend its internal evidence would 
be such as that of the gospel is, and its 
external such as it is said to be. But it is 
also true in fact ; for Christianity was early 
professed, as it was first introduced by 
Jesus of Nazareth, whose life and doctrines 
were published by his immediate attend- 
ants ; whose books are preserved still in 
their original language, and in the main are 
faithfulty translated into our own : so that 
the books of the New Testament now in 
your hands may be depended upon, as 
written by the persons whose names they 
bear. And admitting this, the truth of 
the gospel follows by a train of very easy 
consequences ; for the authors certainly 
knew the truth of the facts they relate ; 
and, considering what appears of their cha- 
racter and circumstances, we can never 
believe they would have attempted to de- 
ceive us ; or, if they had, they could not 



CHRISTIANITY. 427 

I have gained credit in the world : yet they 
! did gain it in a remarkable manner : there- 
i fore the facts they attested are true. And 
the truth of the gospel evidently follows 
from the certainty of those facts, and is 
much confirmed by what has happened in 
the world since the first publication of it. 

I shall conclude what I have to say on 
this subject, with a few words by way of 

i reflection. 

i 

1. Let us gratefully acknowledge the Divine 
goodness, in favouring us with so excellent 
a revelation, and confirming it to us by such 
an ample evidence. 

We should be daily adoring the Cod of 
nature, for lighting up the sun, that glo- 
rious, though imperfect, image of his own 
unapproachable lustre ; and appointing it 
to gild the earth with its various rays, to 
cheer us with its benign influences, and to 
guide and direct us in our journeys and 
our labours. But how incomparably more 
valuable is that Day-spring from on high 
which has visited us, that Sun of righteous- 
ness which is risen upon us, to give light 
to them that sit in darkness and in the 
shadow of death, and to guide our feet in- 
to the way of peace ! O Christians, (for 
I now address n^self to you, whose eyes 
are so happy as indeed to see, and your 
ears as to hear,) what reason have you for 
daily and hourly praise ! when your minds 
are delighted with contemplating the riches 
of gospel grace, when you view with won- 
der and joy the harmonious contrivance 
of your redemption, when you feel the 
burden of your gilt removed, the free- 
dom of your address to the throne of grace 
encouraged, and see the prospect of a fair 
inheritance of eternal glory opening upon 
you ; then in the pleasing transport of your 

souls 



423 



EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



souls borrow the joyful anthem of the 
Psalmist, and say, with the humblest grati- 
tude and self-resignation, " God is the Lord, 
who hath given us light ! bind the sacri- 
fice with cords, even to the horns of the 
altar/' Adore God, who first commanded 
the light to shine out darkness, that by 
the discoveries of his word, and the opera- 
tions of his Spirit, he has shined in your 
hearts, to give you the knowledge of his 
glory, as reflected from the face of his Son. 
Let us all adore him, that this revelation 
hath reached us, who live in an age and 
country so distant from that in which it 
first appeared ; while there are to this day, 
not only dark corners, but regions of the 
earth, which are full of the habitations of 
idolatry and cruelty. 

Let me here particularly address myself 
to those whose education and circum- 
stances of life have given them opportuni- 
ties of a fuller inquiry into the state of 
those ancient or modern nations, that have 
been left merely to the light of unassisted 
reason ; even to you, sirs, who are ac- 
quainted with the history of their gods, the 
rites of their priests, the tales, and even the 
hymns of their poets, (those beautiful tri- 
fles ;) nay, I will add, the reasonings of 
their sagest philosophers, all the precarious 
and all the erroneous things they have said, 
where religion and immortality are con- 
cerned. I have sometimes thought, that 
God gave to some of the most celebrated 
pagan writers that uncommon share of ge- 
nius and eloquence, that they might as it 
were by their art embalm the monsters of 
antiquity, that so succeeding ages might 
see, in a more affecting view than we 
could otherwise have done, how weak the 
human mind is in its best estate, and the 
need which the greatest, as well as the 
meanest of mankind, have of being taught 
by a revelation from above. Permit me to 



| remind you, that while you are daily con- 
versing with such monuments as these, (as 
I know some of you are,) and are also sur- 
veying the enemies of Christianity in a 
larger and more distinct view, you are un- 
der peculiar obligations to be very thank- 
ful for the gospel yourselves, as well as to 
compassionate the case of those to whom 
it has never been offered, or by whom it 
is slighted. And this leads me to another 
reflection : 

2. What reason have we to pity those who 
inject this glorious gospel, even when they 
have opportunities of inquiring into its 
clearest evidence ! 

Such undoubtedly there are in our own 
age and nation : and surely we should some- 
times bestow a compassionate thought upon 
them, and lift up an humble prayer for 
them ; if God will peradventure give them 
repentance to the acknowledging of the 
truth, that they may recover themselves 
out of the snare of the devil, who are now 
led captive by him at his pleasure. We 
should pity Heathens and Mahometans, 
under their darkness and errors ; but how 
much more deplorable is the case of those, 
who, though they dwell in Emmanuel's 
land, and in the valley of vision, turn it 
into the valley of the shadow of death, by 
closing their eyes against so bright a lustre, 
and stopping their ears against the voice of 
the charmer ! They are indeed in their 
own conceit the only people, and wisdom 
will die with them ; so that to be sure they 
will scorn our pity : but who can forbear 
it ? Is there a more melancholy thought 
than this, that the Son of God should have 
done so much to introduce and establish 
the gospel, and his Spirit so much to per- 
petuate and increase its evidence, and that 
after all it should be contemptuously de- 
spised, 



EVIDENCES OF 

spised, even by creatures who are perishing 
without it? That the blessed Jesus, in- 
stead of being received with open arms as 
the great deliverer, should either be treated 
as an empty name, or if acknowledged to 
be a real person, should then be represented 
as a visionary enthusiast, or a wicked im- 
postor; for there is no other alternative? 
And this not onty, (though, I believe, most 
frequently,) by men of profligate and aban- 
doned lives, but sometimes by persons of 
external morality and decency, of great 
humanity and sweetness of temper (for 
such I know are to be found amongst them,) 
as well as men of wit and genius, of polite- 
ness and learning, of human prudence 
and experience in affairs. I may also 
add, that it is the case of some, who were 
the children of pious parents, who were 
trained up in religious exercises, who once 
discovered serious impressions, and gave 
very encouraging hopes. Alas, whither 
are they fallen ! and whither have we rea- 
son to fear they will at length fall ! How 
shall we shelter those, that were once our 
brethren, that are perhaps still our friends, 
from the awful sentence which the gospel 
denounces against all that reject it, with- 
out any exception? As to the wretches 
that add insult and derision to their in- 
fidelity, I tremble to think of that load of 
guilt which they are bringing on them- 
selves, and how near they approach to the 
unpardonable sin ; if they have not already 
committed it. For the rest, who behave 
in a more modest and sober manner, it will, 
no doubt, be a very difficult task to con- 
vince them : and so much the rather, as 
some of them, by too easy a transition, 
have renounced many of the most impor- 
tant principles of natural religion, nay, I 
might add, even the whole of it, together 
with the Christian revelation. But the 
influences of Divine grace are almighty; 



CHRISTIANITY. 429 

let us recommend them to these, and omit 
no other proper method, either of recover- 
ing those who are already seduced, or at 
least of securing those who are not yet in- 
fected, but may be (as most of the youth 
are, especially in the most populous places,) 
in imminent danger of the contagion. To 
this end let me add, 

3. How reasonable it is, that Christians should 
form a familiar acquaintance with the great 
evidences of our common faith. 

It is what we so apparently owe to the 
honour of God, to the interest of Christ, to 
the peace of our own souls, and the edifica- 
tion of others, that I hope I need not urge 
it at large ; especially considering what 
was said in the introduction to these dis- 
courses. In consequence of all, let it be 
your care to make the evidences of Chris- 
tianity the subject of your serious reflec- 
tions, and of your frequent converse : espe- 
cially, study your Bibles, where there are 
such marks of truth and divinity to be 
found, that I believe few that have famili- 
arly known them, and have had a relish 
for them, w T ere ever brought to make ship- 
wreck of the faith as it is in Jesus. Above 
all, let it be your care to act on the rules 
which are here laid down ; and then you 
will find your faith growing in a happy 
proportion, and will experience the truth 
of our Saviour's declaration, that if any 
man will resolutely and faithfully do his 
will, he shall know of the Christian doc- 
trine whether it be of God. I verily be- 
lieve, it is the purity of its precepts, which 
lies at the bottom of most men's opposition 
to it ; or a natural pride of heart, which 
gives them an aversion to so humbling a 
scheme ; or a fond affectation of seeming 
wiser than others, in rejecting what most 
of their neighbours do at least profess to 

5 Q believe. 



430 EVIDENCES OF 

believe. When these unhappy prejudices 
and conceptions are by divine grace con- 
quered and rooted out, the evidence of 
truth will daily appear with an increasing- 
lustre ; as the light of the sun does to an 
eye recovering from a film, with which it 
had been overgrown, and which before had 
vailed it with midnight in the midst of 
noon. Once more : 

4. How solicitous should we be to embrace unci 
obey that gospel, which comes attended with 
such abundant evidence ! 

I may undoubtedly address myself to 
most of 3 r ou, my friends, and say, as Paul 
did to king Agrippa, Belie vest thou the 
prophets ? and I may add, the evangelists, 
and the apostles ? Yes, I know that you 
believe them : yet let me entreat and charge 
you, not to rest here, but attentively to ex- 
amine how far your hearts are affected, 
and your lives regulated, by such a belief. 
The Christian revelation is a practical 
thing : and it is heard, it is believed, it is 
professed, and even defended, in vain, if it 
be not obeyed. Therefore do we so fre- 
quently read of obeying the truth, and 
obeying the gospel, as a matter of so great 
importance. 

In this gospel, the wrath of God is re- 
vealed from heaven against all ungodliness 
and unrighteousness of men ; but it is re- 
vealed with redoubled terror against that 
audacious sinner who holds the truth in 
unrighteousness. In this gospel the Lord 
Jesus Christ is exalted, both as a Prince 
and a Saviour; and it is not with impunity, 
that the impenitent rebel can reject his 
yoke, and trample on his blood : for if he 
that despised Moses' law died without mer- 
cy, of how much sorer punishment, than 
even a capital execution, must they be 
thought worthy, who have poured con- 



CHRISTIANITY. 

tempt on such a Sovereign, and on such a 

Redeemer ? 

O let it be most seriously and frequently 
recollected, that this gospel is the touch- 
stone, by which you are another day to be 
tried ; the balance, in which an impartial 
Judge will weigh you ; and must on the 
whole prove your everlasting triumph, or 
your everlasting torment. The blessed 
God did not introduce it with such solemn 
notice, such high expectations, such pom- 
pous miracles, such awful sanctions, that 
men might reject or dishonour it at plea- 
sure ; but it will certainly be found, to the 
greatest and meanest of those that hear 
it, a savour of life unto life, or a savour of 
death unto death. 

Let it therefore be your immediate care, 
to inquire which of these it is like to prove 
to your souls ; since it is so far from being 
a vain thing, that it is really your very life. 
If it has been hitherto despised, and that 
blessed Redeemer, in whom it so appa- 
rently centres, has been neglected ; remem- 
ber, that all which has been said in confirm- 
ation of its truth, does but in effect prove, 
that the handwriting of God himself is set 
to the sentence of your eternal condemna- 
tion. O therefore allow not yourselves a 
moment's rest, till you have with submis- 
sion applied to his throne, while yet there 
is hope that it may be reversed. 

And as for you, my brethren, who have 
received Christ Jesus the Lord, be ex- 
horted to walk in him ; since it is the de- 
sign of his gospel to teach us to deny un- 
godliness and worldly lusts, and to live 
soberly, righteously, and godly : and this 
not only as you have so comfortable an 
assurance, that your labour shall not be in 
vain in the Lord ; but as it will be, on the 
whole, the most effectual method you can 
take in your respective stations to promote 
the gospel. If you indeed honour it, and 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 431 



love it, and desire it may be propagated 
in the world, let it be your care, not only 
to defend it by your tongues, but to adorn 
it by your lives : and, in the words of that 
great champion in this sacred cause, be 
blameless and harmless, the children of 
God, without, rebuke in the midst of a 
crooked and perverse generation, shining , 



amongst them as lights in the world, and 
so holding forth the word of life ; and per- 
haps it may serve, not only to entertain 
their eyes with wonder and glory, but to 
guide their feet into the way of peace, and 
may engage them also to join with you in 
glorifying your Father which is in heaven. 
( Amen ! 



EXHORTATIONS TO, and DIRECTIONS FOR, 




fBlHOU shalt not be as a wanderer and 
-™- gadder abroad, rambling about the 
streets, without just cause, to spy out such 
as live wickedly. But by minding thy 
own trade and employment, endeavour to 
do what is acceptable to God ; and keep- 
ing in mind the oracles of Christ, medi- 
tate in the same continually. For so the 
Scripture says to thee : " Thou shalt medi- 
tate in his law day and night ; when thou 
walkest in the fields, and when thou sittest 
in thine house, and when thou liest down, 
and when thou risest up ; that thou may- 
esthave understanding in all things." Nay, 
although thou beest rich, and so dost not 
want a trade for thy maintenance, be not 
one that gads about, and walks abroad at 
random ; but either go to some that are 
believers, and of the same religion, and 
confer and discourse with them about the 
lively Oracles of God. 



Or, if thou stayest at home, read the 
books of the Law, of the Kings, with the 
Prophets ; sing the Hymns of David, and 
peruse diligently the Gospel, which is the 
completion of the other. 

Abstain from all the Heathen books. 
For what hast thou to do with such fo- 
reign discourses, or laws, or false prophets, 
which subvert the faith of the unstable ? 
For what defect dost thou find in the law 
of God, that thou shouldest have recourse 
to those Heathenish fables ? For if thou 
hast a mind to read history, thou hast the 
books of the Kings ; if books of wisdom or 
poetry, thou hast those of the Prophets, of 
Job, and the Proverbs ; in which thou wilt 
find greater depths of sagacity than in all 
the heathen poets and sophisters ; because 
these are the words of the Lord, the only- 
wise God. If thou desirest something to 
sing, thou hast the Psalms ; if the origin of 

things, 



432 EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



things, thou hast Genesis ; if laws and sta- 
tutes, thou hast the glorious Law of the 
Lord God. Do thou therefore utterly ab- 
stain from all strange and diabolical books. 

St. Clement. 

— o — 

You are already listed a soldier of Christ; 
your care therefore must only be, to keep 
within the rules of that profession which 
you are engaged in, and to practise the 
virtues which it requires from you. Be 
diligent in prayer, and reading the Word 
of God. At some times you must speak 
with God ; at other times he must speak 
with you. Let him instruct you with his 
precepts, and form your mind by the guid- 
ance of his counsel. The man who is 
thence enriched, no man can impoverish ; 
he who is filled with the fulness of God, 
cannot be empty. All the gaudiness and 
pomp of life will become insipid and je- 
june to you, when once you are convinced 
that your care should rather be employed 
upon yourself, and your soul be adorned 
with the graces of the gospel. Since this 
is a time of leisure and recreation, let us 
spend the remainder of the day in glad- 
ness and singleness of heart ; nor let the 
hour of our repast go over us without some 
portion of that grace which hath hitherto 
employed our minds and tongues. The 
mirth of a sober meal should be expressed 
in psalmody ; and as you are blessed with 
an happy memory and tunable voice, do 
you undertake this office, and enter upon 
it, according to received custom. Your 
friends will have the better entertainment 
by their intermixing it with spiritual dis- 
course, and with religious harmony. 

St. Cyprian. 

Instead oi gems and silk, let your young 
daughter be enamoured with the Holy 



Scriptures ; wherein not gold, or skins, or 
Babylonian embroideries, but a correct and 
beautiful variety, producing faith, will re- 
commend itself. Let her first learn the 
Psalter, and be entertained with those 
songs ; then be instructed unto life by the 
Proverbs of Solomon. Let her learn from 
Ecclesiastes to despise worldly things; tran- 
scribe from Job the practice of patience 
and virtue. Let her pass then to the Gos- 
pels, and never let them be out of her 
hands ; and then imbibe with all the fa- 
culties of her mind the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, and Epistles. When she has enriched 
the storehouse of her breast with these 
treasures, let her learn the Prophets, the 
Pentateuch, (or the books of Moses,) Jo- 
shua and Judges, the books of Kings and 
Chronicles, the volumes of Ezra and Esther, 

and lastly the Canticles. 

The book of Revelation has as many 
mysteries as words. I said too little : in 
every word there is a variety of senses ; 
and the excellency of the book is above 
all praise. 

St. Jerome. 



We often acquaint you many days be- 
forehand with the subject of our discourse, 
that taking the Bible into j r our hands in 
the mean time, and running over the whole 
passage, you may have your minds better 
prepared to hear what is to be spoken. 
And this is the thing I have always advised, 
and shall still continue to exhort you to, 
that you should not only hear what is said 
in this place, but spend your time at home 
continually in reading the Holy Scriptures. 
And here let no one use those frigid and 
vain excuses, — I am a man engaged in the 
business of the law, I am taken up with 
civil affairs, I am a tradesman, I have a 
wife, and children to breed up, I have the 

care 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 433 



care of a family, I am a secular man : it 
belongs not to me to read the Scriptures, 
but to those who have bid adieu to the 
world, and are retired into the mountains, 
and have nothing else to do but to exer- 
cise themselves in such a way of living. 
What sayest thou, O man ? Is it not thy 
business to read the Scriptures, because 
thou art distracted with a multitude of 
other cares ? Yes, certainly, it belongs to 
thee more than them. For they have not 
so much need of the help of the Holy 
Scriptures as you have, who are tossed in 
the waves of the multiplicity of business. 
You have perpetual need of divine reme- 
dies, as well to cure the wounds you have 
already received, as to ward off those you 
are in danger of receiving ; to quench the 
darts of the devil, whilst they are at a dis- 
tance, and drive them awajr by continual 
reading of the Holy Scriptures. For it is 
impossible that a man should attain salva- 
tion without perpetual exercise in reading 
spiritual things. But some again will say, 
What if we cannot understand the things 
that are contained therein ? Why, even in 
that case, though you do not understand 
every thing that is contained therein, yet 
by reading you shall obtain much sancti- 
fication. For it is impossible that you 
should be equally ignorant of all things 
in those books ; for the grace of the Spirit 
so ordered it, that they should originally 
be composed and written by publicans, and 
fishers, and tent-makers, and shepherds, 
and private and illiterate men, that none 
of the most ignorant and unlearned might 
have this excuse of difficulty to fly to; that 
the things there spoken might be easy to 
be looked into by all men ; that the handi- 
craftsman, the servant, the widow, the 
most illiterate and unlearned amons; men, 
might reap benefit and advantage by hear- 
ing them read. The apostles and prophets 



wrote not like the philosophers of the Gen- 
tiles, in obscure terms, but made things 
plain to the understanding of all men ; as 
beino; the common teachers of the world, 
that every man by himself might learn hy 
reading alone the things that were spoken. 
To whom are not all things in the Gospel 
manifest and plain ? Who is there that 
hearing those sajdngs, " Blessed are the 
meek, blessed are the merciful, blessed 
are the pure in heart/' and the like, would 
desire a teacher to understand the mean- 
ing of them ? Moreover, the signs, and 
miracles, and histories, are they not all in- 
telligible and plain to any ordinary reader ? 
This therefore is only a pretence, and ex- 
cuse, and cloak for idleness. Thou dost 
not understand the things contained in the 
Scripture ! How shouldest thou understand 
them, when thou wilt not so much as look 
at them ? Take the book into thy hands, 
read the whole history, and remember those 
things that are intelligible and easy ; and 
those things that are more obscure and 
dark, read over and over again : and if 
thou canst not by frequent reading dive 
into the meaning of what is said, go to a 
wiser person, betake thyself to a teacher, 
and confer with him about any such pas- 
sage ; shew thy diligence, and desire to be 
informed ; and when God sees thy willing- 
ness and readiness of mind, he will not de- 
spise thy vigilance and care. But though 
man informed thee not in the things about 
which thou makest inquiry, he himself will 
certainly reveal it to thee. Remember 
the Eunuch of the Ethiopian queen, who 
though he was a barbarian, and immersed 
in a multitude of cares and business, and 
understood not what he read, yet he read 
for all that, sitting in his chariot. And if 
he shewed so great diligence by the way, 
consider how he behaved himself at home. 
If he would not omit reading in the time 
5 R of 



434 EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



of a journey, much less would he omit 
it, when he sat quietly in his own house. 
If when he understood nothing of it, he 
still continued to read ; much more would 
he do it, when he came to understand it. 
Wherefore, because he read when he had 
no guide, he quickly found a guide. God 
knew the willingness of his mind, and 
accepted his diligence, and presently sent 
him a teacher. But Philip, you will say, 
does not now stand by us : No ; but 
the Spirit that moved Philip is still by us. 
Let us not neglect our own salvation, be- 
loved. These things were written for our 
salvation, upon whom the ends of the 
world are come. The reading of the 
Scriptures is our great guard against sin. 
Our ignorance of them is a dangerous 
precipice, and deep gulph. It is an ab- 
solute betraying of our salvation, to know 
nothing of the divine law. It is this that 
has brought forth so many heresies ; this, 
that has brought so much corruption into 
our lives ; this, that has turned all things 
into confusion. 

St. Chrysostom. 



By prayer we are cleansed from sin ; by 
reading we are taught what we ought to do. 
Both of them are good, when they can be 
practised. But if they cannot both be 
practised, it is better to pray than to read : 
for when we pray, we speak with God ; 
when we read, God speaks with us. If 
you would always abide with God, always 
pray, and always read. To read the Scrip- 
tures is exceedingly necessary for us : for 
by reading we learn what we ought to do, 
what to avoid, and at what we ought to 
aim. Whence it is said, " Thy word is a 
lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my 
paths." By reading, sense and under- 



standing is increased. Reading furnishes 
us for prayer, and for action. Reading 
qualifies both for an active and contem- 
plative life : therefore it is said in the 
Psalms, " The man is blessed who medi- 
tates in the law of the Lord day and night." 
Reading and prayer are the arms by which 
the devil is vanquished ; these are the in- 
struments by which eternal life is acquired. 
By prayer and reading our vices are de- 
stroyed, and virtues are nourished in the 
soul. The servant of the Lord ought al- 
ways to pray and read. Hence it is writ- 
ten in the Psalms, " Then shall I not be 
confounded, when I have respect unto all 
thy commandments." Therefore be much 
in prayer, persevere in meditation upon 
the scriptures, be constant in the law of 
God, let your study be in the divine laws, 
be frequent in reading, let your daily read- 
ing be a meditation on the law. Reading 
leaves less room for the follies of life, and 
draws us off from the vanity of the world. 
May God open your hearts to understand 
his precepts ! 

St. Bernard 

" I usually rise at five o'clock. Between 
six and seven I read two chapters of the 
New Testament bare-headed, and on my 
knees." 

After dinner he took out his Testament, 
and read a chapter on his knees, bare- 
headed, with extraordinary reverence. 

Life of Monsieur de Benty. 

See here, my dear brother, the form of 
life which you are constantly to practise 
every day. In the morning, as soon as 
you are awakened, prepare yourself to me- 
ditate on some mystery of our Lord, be- 
ginning 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 435 



ginning from his holy nativity, and conti- 
nuing to his glorious ascension. Consider 
every day one mystery, in such a manner, 
that if, for example, on Monday the birth 
of our Saviour was the subject of your me- 
ditation, that of his circumcision should be 
for Tuesday : and so in course, till in a 
month's time, having run through all the 
actions of Jesus Christ, you come to con- 
template him ascending into heaven in 
triumph ! You are every month to begin 
these meditations again in the same order. 

After dinner you shall resume your 
morning prayer, and reflect on the same 
mystery half an hour. You are to em- 
ploy yourself in this manner interiously 
through all the variety of your outward 
business ; giving an hour in every day to 
the consideration of the most holy life of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, in whatsoever af- 
fair or in whatsoever incumbrance you are 
engaged. 

Francis Xavier. 

— o — 

The night before Lady Jane Gray was 
executed, she wrote a letter, of which the 
following is a part, on the blank leaves at 
the end of a Greek Testament, which she 
bequeathed as a legacy to her sister, the 
Lady Catharine Gray. 

" I have sent you, my dear sister Catha- 
rine, a book which, although it be not out- 
wardly trimmed with gold, yet inwardly 
it is more worth than all the precious 
mines which the vast world can boast of. 
It is the book, my only best and best-be- 
loved sister, of the law of the Lord : it is 
the Testament and last Will which he be- 
queathed unto us wretches and wretched 
sinners, which shall lead you to the path 
of eternal joy : and if you with a good 
mind read it, and with an earnest desire 



follow it, no doubt it shall bring you to an 
immortal and everlasting life. It will 
teach you to live and learn you to die. — 
It shall win you more, and endow you 
with greater felicity, than you should have 
gained by the possession of our woeful fa- 
ther's lands. For, as if God had prosper- 
ed him, you should have inherited his ho- 
nours and manors ; so if you apply your- 
self diligently to this book, seeking to di- 
rect your life according to the rule of the 
same, you shall be an inheritor of such 
riches, as neither the covetous shall with- 
draw from you, neither the thief shall steal, 
neither yet the moths corrupt. Desire with 
David, my best sister, to understand the 
law of the Lord your God. Live still to 
die, that you by death may purchase eter- 
nal life. And trust not that the tenderness 
of your age shall lengthen your life ; for 
unto God, when he calleth, all hours, times, 
and seasons, are alike. And blessed are 
they whose lamps are furnished when he 
cometh ; for as soon will the Lord be glo- 
rified in the young as in the old/' 

Lady Jane Gray 

— o — - 

Were Christians more generally sensi- 
ble of their great need of divine assistance, 
in order to their attaining to a saving know- 
ledge of the Scriptures ; did they by ear- 
nest prayer apply themselves to God thro' 
Jesus Christ, for the aids of his Holy Spi- 
rit to enlighten their minds, to purify their 
hearts and affections, to sanctify their wills, 
to reprove them for their failings, to teach 
them, and to lead them into all truth, and 
to set home the Scriptures on their con- 
sciences ; they would questionless become 
wise unto salvation, and ready to every 
good work. Did Christians spend more 
time in reading and comparing the sacred 

writings, 



436 EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



writings, than in searching after the differ- 
ent and disagreeing opinions of expositors, 
I am persuaded the way to divine know- 
ledge would be both easier, and shorter, 
and more satisfactory, the disputes among 
Christians fewer, and those which should 
remain would be managed with a spirit of 
meekness and love ; the practice of religion 
would become more universal, and the 
world would feel the benefit of the religion 
our blessed Saviour taught men, and be 
convinced of its divine original. 

Rev. Francis Fot, A.M. 

— o — 

There is in the Holy Scriptures such a 
vast variety of entertainment for a well-dis- 
posed reader, that the Bible is not only 
the most excellent and useful, but really 
the most diverting book in the world. And 
would we but bestow as much time and 
application of mind upon it, as we do up- 
on other considerable authors ; we should 
soon discover such excellencies in it, ay 
would even chain us to it, but with a most 
delightful captivity, and make us relish no- 
thing like it. 

What a noble account, for instance, does 
it give of the first formation of the world ; 
the original of the human race ; the un- 
happy fall of our common ancestors from 
the favour of their Creator ; and the hopes 
that were graciously given them of a re- 
covery ! 

How affecting is the history of the holy 
and venerable patriarchs; their intercourse 
with God and heavenly spirits ; their great 
simplicity, piety, and generosity ; the won- 
derful providence of God towards them 
and their posterity ; and the admirable 
steps and advances that were made from 
age to age to the happy times of the 
Messias ! 



And how surprising is the relation we 
have of his conception, and birth, and life, 
and death, who was the desire of all na- 
tions ! 

How mean was his outward appearance! 
And yet how did his divinity break thro' 
all the clouds and vails that he was pleased 
to put upon it to conceal it ! He seemed 
to be no other than a poor, despised, af- 
flicted man : and yet the wondrous things 
he did, and heavenly doctrines he taught, 
bespoke him to be what he was, God ma- 
nifest in the flesh, to destroy the works of 
the devil. 

All the books in the world cannot afford 
any thing comparable to what this divine 
book treats of ; and that in the most mov- 
ing manner too, without the least appear- 
ance of artifice or affectation, and with a 
natural majestic gracefulness in all its va- 
rious turns. 

But it is not every reader that will have 
this taste for the Scriptures : and 'tis not 
running through a single chapter now and 
then, without order and connection, and 
with all the haste that may be, and then 
laying the book aside, and thinking no 
more of the matter, that will do us any 
considerable good ; for no book whatever 
of any value, that is huddled over at this 
heedless rate, would be read to any pur- 
pose, much less the Book of God. 

No: we must dwell upon it, and, with 
holy David, make it our meditation day 
and night, comparing carefully one pas- 
sage with another, and reading not scatter- 
ingly here and there a little, but perusing 
what is of the same nature and tendency 
together ; and then fixing it in our minds 
by serious meditation, and, above all, en 
deavouring to improve it to what is the 
great end, as to us, of its being written, the 
increase of a true sense of religion in us, 
and sincere holiness of life, that we may 

grow 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 437 



grow wise by it to salvation. For whoever 
reads the Scriptures out of curiosity only, 
or vain-glory, or for any purpose or de- 
sign that does not tend to this in the con- 
clusion, does highly profane and abuse 
them, and will sadly repent it at last. 

But he that with due reverence, humi- 
lity, and pious intention, takes the course 
I mentioned just now, in his sacred studies, 
will in a little time have a true relish for 
the Holy Writings ; and the seeming dry- 
ness and obscurit} 7- of them at first, will 
soon wear off, and they will grow more 
pleasant and beneficial every day than 
other ; especially, and which should never 
be omitted, if we add prayer to our medi- 
tations, before we begin, while we are read- 
ing, and when we have done. 

Rev. Francis Bj'asiQe, B. D. 



The Gospels are by no means to be 
looked upon as so many detached pieces, 
composed by persons totally ignorant of 
each other's intention ; but rather as one 
complete entire system of divinity, sup- 
ported by the strongest proofs that the sub- 
ject is capable of, and defended against 
all the objections which either Jews or 
Gentiles, or even its most dangerous here- 
tical professors, could make to the truth 
and certainty of it. If we read them in 
proper order, we shall find them improving 
one upon another, and yet all conspiring 
to the same end — to a perfect representa- 
tion of revealed religion. 

Rev. Henry Owen, D. _D. 



To secret prayer, you will join devout. 
stud} r of the Bible ; because it is our infal- 
lible guide, and the treasury of all truth 



necessary to salvation. But the riches laid 
up there are not to be found by proud or 
careless minds ; none possess them, till 
they dig for them as for silver, longing to 
know the will of God, that they may do it. 
To superficial readers of the Bible, it pre- 
sents little more than a great number of du- 
ties, which must be performed; and sins, 
which must be renounced ; with insup- 
portable pains, in failure of obedience; 
passages of excellent use, when believed; 
as they at once rouse the selfish soul of 
man to seek reconciliation with God, and 
help from heaven. But earnest and devout 
readers of the Bible discover much more- — 
they discover the tender heart of Christ ; 
the efficacy of his blood to cleanse from 
all unrighteousness ; and a variety of spiri- 
tual blessings, which are the present re- 
ward of being true-hearted in his service. 
I am at a loss for words to express how 
much solid knowledge, transforming your 
mind into the Divine image, you will cer- 
tainly gain by persevering in diligent prayer 
year after year, for the true interpretation 
of God's blessed Word, that you may be 
made wise and holy. 

Rev. Henri/ Venn, M.A. 



O what a sweet and spacious field is 
the Holy Scripture, my soul, in which 
thou mayest traverse about, and entertain 
thyself with the greatest variety of won- 
ders and delight! This letter of love 
from heaven thou canst not peruse too of- 
ten ; but mayest make some of the best 
employment of thy time, to meditate in it 
day and night. There thou sha.lt find the 
noblest histories, the greatest remarks, the 
wisest counsels, the sublimest truths, the 
most surprising passages, the most mo- 
mentous concerns, the exactest rules, the 

5 S holiess 



438 EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



holiest precepts the weightiest warnings, 
the most precious promises, the highest of 
all encouragements. Away then with all 
the impertinent writings, the stained pa- 
per, that do but abuse, if not debauch, 
the readers. 0 dear Book of all books ! 
that has God himself for the blessed au- 
thor, and eternal salvation for the subject 
matter ! Nothing comes with such power 
upon the heart ; nothing gives such satis- 
faction and assurance to the mind. When 
'tis " Thus saith the Lord," 'tis beyond all 
the sayings and confidence of the greatest 
men in the world. To this test I brino- all 

O 

that I hear or read elsewhere ; and in this 
centre I fix, and find sure footing. Amidst 
all the uncertainty and contradiction of 
sentiments in the world, I am easy that I 
have the Divine Oracles, by which I can 
safely abide. 

Rev. Benjamin Jeiihs, A. M. 

Pray take care, that the first thing you 
do in a morning as soon as you are up and 
conveniently habited, be to sanctify and 
hallow the day, by a solemn devotional 
address of yourselves to God in prayer. 
Let this be the first thing you do ; I mean 
before you take any secular or worldly 
thino* in hand. But there is one certain 

O 

thing that I would advise you to do even 
before you say your prayers, and that is, to 
read as attentively and considerately as you 
can a chapter in the Bible. This I would 
have you to do every morning before you 
go to your prayers, which you will find to 
be a most excellent and advantageous prac- 
tice, not only as serving to inform your un- 
derstandings, and bring you acquainted 
with the holy Scriptures, but also to warm 
and quicken your wills and affections, and 
to tune your souls, and put them into a due 
composure for your following devotion. 

Rev. John Norris. 



Let us learn to value our Bibles more 
Oh ! my friends, what rich mines are still 
to be found in this divine depositum, this 
sacred treasure, which we justly call The 
Bible, that is, The Book, or collection of 
books, by way of specialty and eminency. 
— It is not with the Sacred Writings, as it 
is with the writings of uninspired men, 
though never so acute, solid, and elaborate. 
For these we may see to the bottom of, if 
we duly attend to the scope and connec- 
tion: and therefore they judge exceedingly 
amiss, who make their judgment of the 
sense of Scripture from the writings of men 
only ; for every material hint given in the 
Bible kindles more, and these again more, 
and so on : and no wonder ; for the thoughts 
of God are infinite ; and, consequently, his 
expressions of things, though wrapt up in 
the words and language of men, must lead 
into proportionable views and ideas, were 
we able to grasp them. I grow daily more 
and more in love with this sacred Book, 
and in admiration of it. 

Rev. Robert Fleming. 

— o — 

Thou canst not search the Scriptures too 
much, nor can the Word of God dwell too 
richly and plentifully in thee. 

Bislioj) Richardson 

If the Scriptures, however, were recom- 
mended to us only as matters of the great- 
est curiosity and speculation ; as a disco- 
very only of the nature of the Supreme Be- 
ing, and other heavenly intelligences; as an 
hypothesis only, that determined the re- 
wards of virtue, and the immortality of our 
internal and more noble part; that ac- 
counted for all the dark and intricate ways 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 439 



of heaven ; the seemingly severe dispensa- 
tions of Divine Providence ; and, in a 
word, proposed an infallible specific for 
healing the infirmities of our nature : our 
curiosity, one would imagine, if nothing 
else, would find such an innocent, such an 
agreeable amusement, as would be suffi- 
cient to prevail on us to take delight in so 
noble and excellent a study : but when we 
come to reflect seriously within ourselves, 
that those Scriptures are the revealed will 
of God, the words of eternal life ; when we 
consider, that virtue and vice are therein 
delineated in their strongest colours, in or- 
der to recommend the one, and discounte- 
nance the other ; and that the salvation of 
our souls is the sure consequence of our 
observance of the former and abhorrence 
of the latter : when we give ourselves time, 
I say, to ponder on these weighty matters : 
with what assiduity, with what unwearied 
diligence, should we apply ourselves to a 
study that is of such moment and impor- 
tance ! All other researches, how delight- 
ful soever, when set in competition with 
this noblest of studies, will appear as empty 
and idle amusements. Notwithstanding 
we may have been conversant with the best 
systems of philosophy that the ancients 
ever wrote, and have perused, with the ut- 
most care and attention, the most authentic 
histories of all nations ; notwithstanding we 
may have worldly wisdom enough to form 
a proper judgment of all the secret springs 
by which whole kingdoms are governed 
and directed, by their respective prime- 
ministers of state ; yet if we are strangers 
to this true wisdom, to this one thing need- 
ful, all such worldly wisdom will avail us 
nothing ; we shall have studied to no man- 
ner of purpose; and all our learning, in 
short, will be but what Solomon calls it- 
vexation of spirit. 

Rev. D. Bellamy. 



— O Sir, what are you doing, that other 
books are so much read, and the Bible so 
much neglected ? Will you learn from a 
poor penitent ? Indeed I repent, and God 
forgive my mispent time in sciences and 
classics. I saw my folly two and twenty 
years ago, and have since studied nothing 
else but the Bible ; and I assure you, Sir, I 
am got but a little way : I see such things 
before me, which I know but in part, that 
I am pressing on ; and I wish for some of 
my lost time to spend in this blessed study. 

Rev. JJ illiam Romaine, M. A 

To what can we better apply ourselves 
than to read the Scripture, that heavenly 
book, which contains in it treasures of wis- 
dom and knowledge ? and to which we 
may say, as the disciples to our Lord, 
" Thou hast the words of eternal life/' — 
How can we employ ourselves better, when 
alone and free, than in conversing with 
the doctrines and precepts of religion, and 
endeavouring to know and comprehend 
them ? We may truly say, when we apply 
to these things, we are satisfied with the 
marrow of God's house, and drink of the 
river of his deliohts. 

Rev. John Claude. 

— o — 

Rest not in high-strained paradoxes of 
old philosophy, supported by naked rea- 
son, and the reward of moral felicity ; but 
labour in the ethics of faith, built upon 
heavenly assistance, and the happiness of 
both beings. Understand the rules, but 
swear not unto the doctiTnes, of Zeno or 
Epicurus. Look beyond Antoninus, and 
terminate not thy morals in Seneca or Epic- 
tetus. Let not the twelve, but the two ta- 
bles. 



4-40 EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



bles, be thy law : let Pythagoras be thy re- 
membrancer, not thy textuary and final in- 
structor ; and learn the vanity of the world 
rather from Solomon than Phocylides. — 
Sleep not in the dogmas of the Peripatus, 
Academy, or Porticus. Be a Moralist of 
the mount, an Epictetus in the faith, and 
Christianize thy notions. 

Sir Thomas Broume. 



-o — 



This heavenly food, the word of God, 
abideth for ever, and shall nourish up our 
souls unto everlasting life. This ought to 
be our daily bread. Herein we should 
read and meditate day and night, and say 
with David, " I have more delight in thy 
commandments than in thousands of gold 
and silver." For here we find a heavenly 
treasure for our souls ; here we learn all 
things profitable for our salvation ; here 
great ones learn humility, rich men cha- 
rity, poor contentedness, the oppressed pa- 
tience, the afflicted comfort. Other books 
may be helps to devotion, and give us some 
instruction for life ; but all come much 
short of this holy Book. 

Bishop Herbert. 



In the Bible are recorded the noblest 
exploits of real heroes, transmitted down to 
posterity for their imitation, which we can- 
not but look upon with wonder and de- 
light. At the same time we have the par- 
ticular satisfaction of reflecting;, that this 
our history is as true as it is full of wonders, 
without any mixture of falsehood or unfair 
colouring to recommend it. It is grand, 



dignity, a dignity not to be met with in 
the historical accounts of profane writers. 
So that the Scripture, considered only in 
this view, would demand our attention be- 
fore any composition merely human. — 
And if these Scriptures are divinely pen- 
ned, are of such dignity in themselves, and 
of such infinite concern to us ; if all other 
knowledge compared with what may be 
here known be no better than dung, and 
all other books with regard to their use and 
excellency (even the most curious or en- 
tertaining) be no more than a sounding 
brass or tinkling cymbal ; what can be said 
or thought of such, who pay more regard 
to the flashy unsatisfying performances 
of Heathen writers, than to the fountains of 
truth and life ? It is grievous to see ratio- 
nal beings, Christian men, nay, sometimes 
Christian ministers, mispending their time 
and studies in such pursuits, and teaching 
others by the most forcible instruction, that 
of example, that many other authors de- 
serve a more near and careful perusal than 
the inspired writers ! What will be the 
consequence here, and hereafter, of thus 
following shadows instead of the substance, 
of this contemptuous treatment of the book 
of life ; is not matter of private judgment. — 
As the study of the Scriptures has been 
generally neglected, and a preference given 
to almost any other writer, in the esteem of 
many who would be thought persons of 
penetration and judgment, it will behove 
the Clergy more particularly to consider, 
whether they have any way countenanced 
this vicious and false taste. If they have 
been more careful to set off and exemplify 
the beauties of the Grecian and Roman 
writers, than those of the sacred penmen; 
if they lay more stress upon the authority 



though simple ; big with matters and events i of philosophers and human wisdom, than 
of the greatest importance, the weight of j upon the foundation and precepts of pro- 
which fills the expressions with a suitable , phets and apostles ; if they have been si- 
lent 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 441 



ient upon, or industriously careful to ob- 
scure, by spreading a false gloss over such 
doctrinal principal points as are entitled to 
a priority of order and dignity ; what will 
they say to their Master, when they are 
summoned to give an account of their 
stewardships ? 

Rev. Walter Hodges, D. D. 
— o — 

C lassic us is a man of learning, and 
well versed in all the best authors of anti- 
quity. He has read them so much, that 
he has entered into their spirit, and can 
very ingeniously imitate the manner of 
any of them. All 'their thoughts are his 
thoughts, and he can express himself in 
their language. He is so great a friend to 
this improvement of the mind, that if he 
lights of a young scholar, he never fails to 
advise him concerning his studies 

Classicus tells his young man, he must 
not think that he has done enough, when 
he has only learned languages ; but that 
he must be daily conversant with the best 
authors, read them again and again, catch 
their spirit by living with them, and that 
there is no other way of becoming like 
them, or making himself a man of taste 
and judgment. 

How wise might Classicus have been, 
and how much good might he have done 
in the world, if he had but thought as justly 
of devotion, as he does of learning ? 

He never, indeed, says any thing shock- 
ing or offensive about devotion, because he 
never thinks or talks about it. It suffers 
nothing from him, but neglect and disre- 
gard. 

The Old and New Testaments would not 
have had so much as a place amongst his 
books, but that they are both to be had in 
Greek. 



Classicus thinks that he sufficiently shews 
his regard for the Holy Scriptures, when he 
tells you, that he has no other books of 
piety besides them. 

It is very well, Classicus, that you pre- 
fer the Bible to all other books of piety: 
he has no judgment that is not thus far of 
your opinion. 

But if you will have no other book of 
piety besides the Bible, because it is the 
best, how comes it, Classicus, that you do 
not content yourself with one of the best 
books amongst the Greeks and Romans ? 
How comes it that you are so greedy and 
eager after all of them ? How comes it 
that you think the knowledge of one is a 
necessary help to the knowledge of the 
other ? How comes it that you are so 
earnest, so laborious, so expensive of your 
time and money, to restore broken periods 
and scraps of the ancients ? 

How comes it that you read so many 
commentators upon Cicero, Horace, and 
Homer, and not one upon the Gospels 1 
How comes it that your love of Cicero and 
Ovid makes you to love to read an author 
that writes like them ; and your esteem for 
the gospel gives you no desire, nay, pre- 
vents your reading such books as breathe 
the very spirit of the gospel ? 

How comes it that you tell your j-oung 
scholar, he must not content himself with 
barely understanding his authors, but must 
be continually reading them all, as the 
only mean of entering into their spirit, and 
forming his own judgment according to 
them ? 

Why then must the Bible lie alone in 
your study ? Is not the spirit of the saints, 
the piety of the holy followers of Jesus 
Christ, as good and necessary a means of 
entering into the spirit and taste of the 
gospel, as the reading of the ancients is of 
entering into the spirit of antiquity ? 

5T Is 



442 EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



Is the spirit of poetry only to be got by 
much reading of poets and orators ? And 
is not the spirit of devotion to be got in 
the same way, by frequent reading the 
holy thoughts and pious strains of devout 
men ? 

Is your young poet to search after every 
line that may give new wings to his fan- 
cy, or direct his imagination ? And is it 
not as reasonable for him, who desires to 
improve in the divine life, that is, in the 
love of heavenly things, to search after 
every strain of devotion, that may move, 
kindle, and inflame, the holy ardour of his 
soul ? 

Do you advise your orator to translate 
the best orations, to commit much of them 
to memory, to be frequently exercising his 
talents in this manner, that habits of think- 
ing and speaking justly may be formed in 
nis mind ? And is there not the same be- 
nefit and advantage to be made by books 
of devotion ? Should not a man use them 
in the same way, that habits of devotion, 
and aspiring to God in holy thoughts, may 
be well formed in his soul ? 

Now the reason why Classicus does not 
think and judge thus reasonably of devo- 
tion, is owing to his never thinking of it in 
any other manner than as the repeating of 
a form of words. It never in his life en- 
tered into his head, to think of devotion 
as a state of the heart, as an improvable 
talent of the mind, as a temper that is to 
grow and increase like our reason and 
judgment, and to be formed in us by such 
a regular diligent use of proper means, as 
are necessary to form any other wise habit 
of mind. 

And it is for want of this, that he has 
been content all his life with the bare let- 
ter of prayer, and eagerly bent upon enter- 
ing into the spirit of Heathen poets and 
orators. 



And it is much to be lamented, that 
numbers of scholars are more or less charge- 
able with this excessive folly; so negligent 
of improving their devotion, and so desi- 
rous of other poor accomplishments, as if 
they thought it a nobler talent to be able 
to write an epigram in the turn of Martial, 
than to live, and think, and pray to God, 
in the spirit of St. Austin. 

And yet to correct this temper, and fill 
a man with a quite contrary spirit, there 
seems to be no more required than the 
bare belief of the truth of Christianity. 

And if you were to ask Mundanus and 
Classicus, or any men of business or learn- 
ing, whether piety is not the highest per- 
fection of man, or devotion the greatest 
attainment in the world ; they must both 
be forced to answer in the affirmative, or 
else give up the truth of the gospel. 

For to set any accomplishment against 
devotion, or to think any thing, or all 
things in the world, can bear any propor- 
tion to its excellency ; is the same absur- 
dity in a Christian, as it would be in a 
philosopher, to prefer a meal's meat to the 
greatest improvement in knowledge. 

For as philosophy professes purely the 
search and inquiry after knowledge ; so 
Christianity supposes, intends, desires, and 
aims at nothing else, but the raising 01 
fallen man to a divine life, to such habits 
of holiness, such degrees of devotion, as 
may fit him to enter among the holy inha- 
bitants of the kingdom of heaven. 

He that does not believe this of Christi- 
anity, may be reckoned an infidel ; and he 
that believes thus much, has faith enough 
to give him a right judgment of the value 
of things, and to support him in a sound 
mind, and enable him to conquer all the 
temptations which the world shall lay in 
his way. 

Rev. William Law, A.M. 

1. Read. 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. US 



1. Read the Word with prayer. Prayer 
is one of the great means of bringing down 
the Divine blessing upon all ordinances 
and duties, to our spiritual edification. It 
is a means of preparing our hearts for 
other duties, and of enabling us to get 
good from them. It would be well for 
prayer to go before reading. However, if 
circumstances will not permit you to spend 
some time in this duty before you read the 
word, do not absolutely neglect it ; but 
send up a few petitions to God, that he 
would prepare your heart for the work 
that lies before you ; open your eyes, that 
you may understand the Scripture ; and 
accompany reading with a divine bless- 
ing, that it mny answer some valuable 
purpose in your soul, either to enlighten, 
quicken, or comfort, or in some way or 
other to promote your spiritual good. 
AVhen you consider these things, you can- 
not but see the propriety of prayer before 
reading. But especially accompany read- 
ing with prayer. Do not think you have 
done all that is incumbent upon you, when 
you have read the Scripture either in the 
family or in the closet. Pray it over before 
God. Have you been reading any pro- 
mises of spiritual blessings ? Plead them 
with God. Has the chapter been repre- 
senting the odiousness of sin, its dreadful 
consequences, the falls of God's people, 
and salvation to the chief of sinners? Beg 
that your eyes ma}^ be opened to see the 
malignity of sin, and the wickedness of 
j r our heart, and that you may be kept from 
those evils which many have fallen into, 
and be enabled to admire the riches of 
free grace in the salvation of creatures so 
unworthy, and in your own in particular. 
Have you been reading of the privileges of 
God's children here, and the glory they 
shall have hereafter ? or have you been tak- 
ing a view of their various duties, of their 



respective relations and circumstances of 
life, or of their various experiences, and 
of the dealings of God with them ? Beg 
that your heart may be suitably affected 
with such representations, that you may be 
encouraged in your Christian course, quick- 
ened to run y our race, confirmed in your 
belief of the reality of religion, and be en- 
abled to continue, till you receive the end 
of your faith, even your complete and ever- 
lasting salvation. Has the chapter been 
representing the Mediator, his glorious per- 
son, his important offices, his amazing love, 
the triumph of his cross, or his qualifica- 
tions for the great work he has undertaken, 
and therefore his all-sufficiency to save ? 
Be earnest with God, that you may be en- 
abled to leave yourself with this Jesus, may 
be sprinkled with his blood, have a share 
in all the blessings he has purchased, an 
that his love may ever endear him to yovn 
souls, kindle the sacred fire in your brea sts, 
and engage you to walk before him in 
holiness and righteousness all the clays of 
your life. Thus let reading be accompa- 
nied with prayer. Remember, the Scrip- 
ture is full of important Hysterics, which 
we cannot see the beauty of, unless the Spi- 
rit opens the eyes of our understandings. 
Our hearts are naturally full of prejudices 
against the glorious contents of Scripture, 
and therefore we want the Spirit to remove 
these, and to give us a true relish for the 
great truths of revelation, and impress them 
powerfully upon our minds to our salva- 
tion. They that neglect prayer, and de- 
pend upon their own judgment and skill 
to guide them in matters of everlasting mo- 
ment, have no reason to expect the Spirit's 
teachings, and are therefore liable to fall 
into errors, even those that will prove eter- 
nally destructive to their highest interest. 
Pray therefore for divine direction, for di- 
vine quickenings, that what you read may 

be 



444 EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



be a means of bringing you nearer to God, 
and of promoting your everlasting advan- 
tage. Finally, earnestly pray, that whilst 
you are beholding the glory of the Lord in 
the glass of his word, you may be changed 
into his image from glory to glory, and 
may find those truths you are reading, pro- 
perly impressing, warming, and establish- 
ing your hearts, that you may be growing 
in the image of your Redeemer, and be 
training up for a glorious and everlasting 
world above. 

2. Observe some order in reading the 
Word, and make use of those helps that 
may be necessary to } T our understanding 
it. This man is at a loss to determine, 
whether he shall begin with the Bible, and 
go regularly through it, or not. This seems 
to be the best method to observe at your 
stated times of reading ; and it will not 
prevent your looking into other parts of 
Scripture, when you have opportunity. 
This method will give you a view of the 
great events which the Scripture mentions, 
and of the various circumstances of the 
church from period to period, and of God's 
dealings with them. By this means you 
ha ve a regular view of things, as they ap- 
peared from the creation down to Christ 
and his apostles. You will hereby have a 
greater insight into Scripture history and 
chronology, which will be both entertain- 
ing and useful, and keep your ideas on 
things relating to persons and facts distinct 
and clear. This person farther says, there 
is a great part of Scripture he does not un- 
derstand. You should read the Scripture 
therefore with an exposition or paraphrase. 
This will open the text to you, shew you 
the connection, the design, the meaning, 
and furnish you with matter for serious 
meditation. What end will it answer for 
you to read this Sacred Volume, and not 
understand it ? If it is a sealed book, it is 



like to be useless. Upon the whole, though 
you may understand some parts, yet there 
are others that will appear mysterious and 
will remain so, to j r our great disadvantage 
in reading, unless you have some interpre- 
ter to help you to understand their mean- 
ing. 

3. You should be concerned to read the 
Word of God with great seriousness and 
attention, and a real desire to have the 
contents of it impressed upon your mind, 
that you may be fitted more for glorifying 
God in every character and station. If 
you run through a chapter or two in a 
hasty cursory manner, you cannot expect 
much advantage. You should be con- 
cerned to attend with the utmost care and 
diligence, as well as with the greatest seri- 
ousness. A sense of the glorious Author, 
and of the subject-matter of Scripture, 
should fill you with a peculiar awe, and 
command a reverence. It is the AVord of 
God ; it comes with a " Thus saith the 
Lord," has his image instamped upon it, 
and is his message to you concerning things 
of everlasting moment. It is not designed 
to amuse us with trifling and empty specu- 
lations, or divert us with romantic stories ; 
it contains things of a far nobler and more 
sublime nature, even things that concern 
our everlasting peace. It reveals the trans- 
actions of eternity concerning the salva- 
tion of man. It represents the fall, with 
all its melancholy consequences ; our state 
by nature, how wretched and deplorable ! 
It sets forth the riches of divine grace in 
appointing a Saviour, and in the method 
taken to bring about our redemption and 
salvation. It shews us the encouragements 
we have to apply to the Redeemer for all 
saving blessings; represents the nature, va- 
riety, and excellency of them, the hap- 
piness of the saints in heaven, the triumphs 
and solemnity of the great day, the sen- 
tence 



EXHORTATIONS TO THE READING HOLY SCRIPTURES. 445 



tence that will pass upon the wicked, and 
the awful execution of it in hell. It is full 
of promises on the one hand, and threat- 
eninos on the other, and therefore calls for 
the greater seriousness and attention in 
those who read it. It is designed to be a 
means of our sanctification, and so to fit 
us for the heavenly world : and therefore 
we should seriously attend to it. And, 
lastly, it is that Word by which we must 
be judged. This is the grand book that 
will be opened : according to this will the 
sentence be passed, and all the opportuni- 
ties w r e have had of reading and hearing it, 
but not improved, will appear against us, 
if found strangers to Jesus, and aggravate 
our condemnation. Plow seriousty, reve- 
rently, and attentively, then, should we 
read this Sacred Word ! In fine, when 
we read the Scripture, it should be with 
views and desires of feeling its pow T er, and 
tasting its sweetness ; that our minds may 
be more enlightened by it, and our souls 
more established ; that our corruptions 
may be more mortified, and our graces 
more quickened and strengthened ; that 
our doubts may be more removed, and our 
souls be supported under all the difficul- 
ties of life ; that the promises may be more 
and more our joy, heaven be more in our 
eye, and we be set a-longing more after 
the full and everlasting enjoyment of God 
above. 

4. Reading the W^ord of God should be 
accompanied with meditation and self-ex- 
amination. Reading alone will be of lit- 
tle service. Food taken into the stomach 
will answer no valuable purpose, unless it 
is digested. Meditation is a digesting spi- 
ritual things, and turning them into nou- 
nshment to our souls. By this we extract 
honey from every truth, and so get some 
additions made to our knowledge and ex- 
penence. It is a means of humbling, 



quickening, and establishing our souls, 
and of kindling a fire in our affections. 
Whilst the psalmist was musing, the fire, 
burned, Psa. xxxix. 3. How often, in) 
meditation upon what the Christian has 
been reading, has he found his affections 
raised, and his soul in some measure 
brought near to God! How often, whilst 
musing, has he been filled with an in- 
difference to this world, hatred of sin, 
self-abhorrence, love to the Lord Jesus 
Christ, admiration of his rich and infinite 
grace, warm desires after the enjoyments 
above, and satisfying view T s of an interest 
in them ! By meditation the W^ord takes 
deeper root in us, makes a more pow- 
erful impression on our minds, and fur- 
nishes us with matter for prayer. As 
often as you read, be concerned to medi- 
tate upon it. Examine yourself too by it, 
and see what concern you have with it, 
what influence it has had upon you, and 
how you may improve it. Have you been 
reading any of the marks and the cha- 
racters of the people of God, the graces 
of the Spirit? Inquire whether you have 
found any of them in your own soul. Has 
the chapter been representing some of the 
doctrines of Christianity? Examine what 
knowledge you have of them, how they 
suit your experience, and what use you 
make of them for humiliation, encourage- 
ment, &c. Have you been reading of the 
love of God in the various parts of redemp- 
tion and salvation by Christ Jesus ? Here 
is a theme for your meditation ; here is a 
call for your examination. Inquire whe- 
ther it has ever affected your heart, raised 
your admiration, and kindled a sacred 
flame in your soul. Finally, compare your 
heart with what you read ; see w r hether 
it is not your case that is represented, and 
endeavour by meditation upon, and self- 
application of it, to get some spiritual 
5 U advantage 



446 EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



advantage from it. To these directions I 
may add, 

5. Read the Word of God frequently. 
The oftener you read the Scriptures, the 
more benefit you are like to receive. Let 
the Bible be your companion. Be much 
conversant with it. Consult it upon all 
occasions. In every difficulty, when you 
want quickening, direction, comfort, or 
establishment, look into the Sacred Word. 
Let it be your daily practice to read it, as 
by this means you will get a growing ac- 
quaintance with it, its various mysteries, 
the duties it represents, the encourage- 
ments and directions it gives you in every 
case ; and so, by a divine blessing, will have 
your knowledge and experience increased, 
your graces confirmed and strengthened, 
and your way made easy and pleasant 
through this difficult wilderness. I shall 
now close with two reflections. — 

1. What reason have we to be thankful 
for the Scriptures, and the free use of them! 
When we consider the divine authority of 
this book, view its important discoveries, 
its peculiar usefulness, and how many are 
deprived of it, we have reason to admire 
infinite grace that we enjoy it, and should 
ever esteem it as the choicest of our trea- 
sures. We have great reason to be thank- 
ful, that God is delivering us from time to 
time from superstition, as by this means 
our sacred privileges are continued to us ; 
and we have the free use of the Bible, have 
it in our own houses, as well as in the house 
of God, and can examine it upon all occa- 
sions, and try every doctrine by this divine 
standard. These must not be ranked 
amongst the least of our mercies; they are 
of great importance, and call for our high- 
est and our united praises. 

2. What matter of lamentation is it that 
this Sacred Book is so much neglected, and 
how inexcusable must such for ever be ! 



There are many families, it is to be feared, 
in this land, who have not so much as a 
Bible in their house ; nor do they desire it. 
There are others who have it, but let it lie 
neglected, as an unfashionable book. Ro- 
mances, plays, history, and various sorts of 
human compositions, are in constant use ; 
but this most excellent volume, this book 
that is the foundation of all our knowledge 
of divine things, our holiness and our com- 
fort, is thrown aside ; or when it is ever 
opened, it is with reluctance. What amaz- 
ing ingratitude and stupidity is this ! Oh, 
may we all be humbled for our own and 
others' negligence, and be concerned in our 
respective stations to esteem, use, and im- 
prove, the Scripture ourselves, and do all 
we can to excite others to do the same ; 
that we may see peace and righteousness 
again flourish, ignorance and superstition 
banished, and a knowledge of the gospel 
spreading throughout the land. So, Lord, 
let it be. Amen, and Amen. 

Rev. Samuel Hey wood. 

In reading the Word of God, if you 
would profit by it, then look to God for his 
blessing upon it. When you begin, pray 
that he may bless it to you, and open your 
ears and hearts to hear and comply with 
it, as the voice of God. 

2. Read it with reverence, not as the 
word of man, but, as it is indeed, the Word 
of the Qreat God. 

Endeavour to get your hearts impressed 
by his blessed Word. The doctrines, laws, 
and very spirit of our Bibles, should be 
transcribed into our very souls. Let then 
God's Word stand not only in your Bibles, 
but dwell in your hearts. 

Have an eye to Christ in every thing 

you 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 447 



you read; for he is the end, scope, and 
substance, of the whole Bible ; and every 
thing in it is reducible to him. 

4. Mark the special passages of the 
Word, either those that are most important 
in themselves, or most applicable to you. 
Mark the duties enjoined, and sins forbid- 
den, with the promises of the one, and 
threatenings against the other: fasten these 
upon your memories, and hide them in 
your hearts. Meditate on them, and pray 
that God may keep them in your minds, 
ready for use against the time of need. 
There are sundry evangelical laws and 
precepts in the Word of God, which you 
should observe : as, believing in Christ, 
doing all religious exercises in his name, 
depending upon his merits, grace, and in- 
tercession; looking only for acceptance in 
him ; a persuasion of the necessity and use- 
fulness of his offices, as Mediator, Prophet, 
Priest, and King; an apprehension of our 
own ignorance, guilt, weakness, misery, 
and nothingness, without Christ; a relying 
on him in all his offices. We also should 
remark concerning the Spirit, that he is a 
Spirit of conviction, illumination, prayer, 
holiness, conduct, comfort, and sealing; so 
we should accept of his help, and cherish 
his motions and influences. 

5. Consider the worth and excellency 
of the Word ; and how suitable it is to any 
case and condition we may be in. It is 
a rich mine of heavenly treasure, a store- 
house of all spiritual consolation ; a com- 
mon shop of medicines for the soul, full of 
rich privileges, promises, and large lega- 
cies to the people of God; it is a staff and 
stay to the old, an ornament and guide to 
the young. In the Word of God we read 
the love which God bears to his children 
from all eternity, and will continue to have 
for them when time shall be no more. 
Here are found the leaves of the tree of 



life, which God hath ordained for the heal- 
ing of the nations. In a word, here is the 
true judge of controversies, a hammer for 
heretics, a touch-stone for doctrine, a rule 
for our lives, a comforter and counsellor 
in this house of our pilgrimage, a sovereign 
cordial in all our soul's distresses. David 
found it so to his sweet experience, Psa. 
cxix. 50. " This is my comfort in my af- 
flictions, for thy word hath quickened 
me." Oh! how excellent is the Word, and 
who can set forth all its excellency? It is 
a glass to discover our spots, a lamp to 
guide us in the dark, a fire to warm our 
cold affections, a magazine to supply us 
with armour against our spiritual enemies. 
Here are suitable cordials for all our vari- 
ous cases ; be it desertion, temptation, po- 
verty, sickness, reproach, or persecution ; 
here is the heavenly rain, for making soft 
and tender hearts; here is meat for strong 
men, and milk for babes; and, through the 
Divine blessing, will be both food and 
physic to our souls. 

It is surely the Christian's duty to read 
and meditate much on God's most excel- 
lent Word, and that with pleasure and de- 
light : the child delights to read his father's 
will and testament, and see what is be- 
queathed to him; citizens delight to read 
their charters, to see their privileges; the 
malefactor acquitted, delights to read his 
pardon ; and the prodigal that is received 
into favour, delights to read the affectionate 
letters of his father to him : then if ye are 
received into favour, and born of God, you 
cannot but be lovers of this most excellent 
W ord of God, and read and meditate on 
it both day and night. 

6. We are to contend for the Scriptures : 
this precious jeAvel is too good to be parted 
with, Prov. iv. 13. " Keep her, for she is 
thy life." It is our duty not only to love, 
read, and understand, the Scriptures, but 

also 



448 EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



also to contend for the same. Heretics 
fight against it; we must therefore contend 
for it, Jude, ver. 3. The Scriptures are our 
book of evidence for heaven ; shall we 
part with our evidences ? The saints of old 
were both advocates and martyrs for the 
truth ; they held fast Scripture, though it 
was at the expense of their lives. David 
spends the whole 119th Psalm, to shew his 
intimate affection to it; Moses esteems it 
above all the learning of other nations, 
Deut. iv. 5, 6. Solomon prefers it before 
pearls, Prov. iii. 15. Job prefers it before 
his food, Job xxiii. 12. Jeremy makes it 
his joy, Jer. xv. 16. In a word, all the 
children of God have been great lovers of 
God's Word, and could never be prevailed 
on to part with it, though persecuted for 
the same. 

7. Read this excellent Word with appli- 
cation to yourselves, as if God spoke to 
you by name and surname in every line of 
it. Read it as a love-letter sent straight 
from Heaven to you, and to stir you up to 
faith and holiness. Let us accept of its re- 
proofs and admonitions with thankfulness, 
and say, What a great mercy is it, that we 
may read our Father's will in our mother- 
tongue ! And that God speaks his mind 
so plainly to us in his Word, shewing us 
what we are to believe, what we are to do, 
and what we are to pray for, in order to 
God's glory, and our own happiness. 

Rev. Thomas Watson. 

— o — 

Peradventure it were most expedient 
that the counsels of kings should be kept 
secret : but Christ would that his counsels 
and mysteries should be spread abroad as 
much as possible. 1 would desire that all 
women should read the Gospels, and Epis- 



tles of St. Paul. And I would to God 
they were translated into the tongues of all 
men, so that they might not only be read 
and known of Scots and Irish, but also of 
the Turks and Saracens. Truly it is one 
degree to good living, yea, the first, I had 
almost said the chief, to have a little sight 
in the Scripture, though it be but a gross 
knowledge, and not yet consummate. I 
would to God the plowman would sing a 
text of Scripture at his plough ; and that 
the weaver at his loom with this would 
drive away the tediousness of time. I 
would the wayfaring man, with this pas- 
time, would expel the weariness of his 
journey. And, in short, I would that all 
the communication of the Christian should 
be of the Scripture. 

I believe that the very pure and natural 
philosophy of Christ can be gathered so 
fruitfully out of no place as out of the Gos- 
pels, and Epistles of the apostles ; in which 
if a man will study devoutly, attending 
more to prayer than arguing, desiring ra- 
ther to be made a new man, than to be 
armed with Scriptures unto contention, he, 
without doubt, shall find, that there is no- 
thing pertaining unto man's felicity, or 
unto any operation expedient for the pre- 
sent life, but it is therein declared, discuss- 
ed, and absolutely touched upon. 

If then we go about to learn any thing, 
wherefore shall any other master or in- 
structor more please us than Christ him- 
self? If we require a rule and form to live 
after, why do we rather embrace any other 
example than the very first copy and pat- 
tern, which is Christ himself? If we de- 
sire a wholesome medicine against the 
grievous and noisome lusts or appetites of 
our minds, why seek we not here the most 
fruitful remedy? If we wish to quicken 
with reading our dull and fainting mind, 
I pray you where shall we find such en- 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 449 



livening and fiery sparkles ? If we covet 
to withdraw our minds from the cares of 
this life, why seek we any other delectable 
pastimes ? Why had we rather learn the 
wisdom of Christ's doctrine out of men's 
books, than of Christ himself? 

What a marvellous world is this ! We 
keep the letters which are written from our 
friend; we kiss them, and bear them about 
with us ; we read them over twice or thrice ; 
and how many thousands are there among 
Christians, who are esteemed persons of 
great learning, and who yet have not once 
in their lives read over the Gospels, and 
Epistles of the apostles ! 

Why do we not all apply our diligent 
study to these great authors ; I mean Christ, 
Peter, Paul, and John ? Why bear we not 
these about in our bosoms ? Why have we 
not them ever in our hands ? Why do we 
not haunt, seek, and search out, these 
things with a curious diligence ? 

Blessed is he whom death assaileth, if 
his heart be wholly occupied in this whole- 
some doctrine. 

Let us all therefore with fervent desire 
thirst after these spiritual springs. Let us 
embrace them. Let us be studiously con- 
versant with them. Let us kiss these sweet 
words of Christ with pure affection. Let 
us be new transformed into them ; for such 
are our manners as our studies be. 

The gospel doth represent and express 
the quick and living image of his most holy 
mind ; yea, and Christ himself, speaking, 
healing, dying, rising again, and, to con- 
clude, all parts of him ; insomuch that we 
could not so plainly and fruitfv Uy see him, 
although he were present befor*. our bodily 
eyes. Erasmus. 



Hail, sacred page! volume of inspira- 
tion ! in whose presence the compositions 



of mortal wit hide their ashamed counte- 
nances ; as stars, which shone brightly in 
the clear sky, disappear when the morning 
sun purples the eastern clouds. Where 
shall we find such venerable antiquity as 
in this reverend code ? Before Abraham 
was, was Christ, the great I AM. Be- 
fore Orpheus, or Linus, or Hesiod, or Ho- 
mer, were the scriptures of the Hebrew 
Lawgiver. 

It is true, the hoary head is not a crown 
of glory, except when found in the way of 
righteousness. There are trifling, there are 
immoral, there are inconsistent, produc- 
tions. If these should vie with the Sacred 
Oracles in the earliness of their existence ; 
yet they must not presume to claim an 
equal regard from men with the Book of 
God, whose subject is a compound of the 
marvellous, the pious, the useful, and the 
grand. The histories of past, the prophe- 
cies of future events, are neither trifling nor 
deceitful. The precepts, how pure ! The 
doctrines and nrysteries, how sublime ! How 
worthy of God to reveal them ! of man to 
believe them ! Here both the natural and 
the moral world unfold to our view. Here 
we behold this beauteous fabric, emerging 
out of nothing, and wrapped in a wind- 
ing-sheet of flames. Here we are informed 
of the birth of evil, both natural and mo- 
ral ; and how they are again rooted out of 
the world. The miseries you are to avoid; 
the happiness you are to pursue ; the me- 
thod wherein 3 7 ou may attain the one, and 
avoid the other ; — these are the important 
and interesting themes of the Bible. Per- 
use these holy records ; and be acquaint- 
ed with thyself, and with thy God, O 
mortal ! To ransom thee from death, to 
render you blessed both here and hereafter; 
see here thy g»eat Creator, lying in the 
womb, groaning on a cross, and sleeping 
in a grave ! 

5 X Jesus ! 



450 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



Jesus ! thou Saviour of the world, these 
Scriptures testify of thee. Thou art the 
Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the 
Ending of them. In the Old Testament 
thou art concealed ; in the New Testament 
thou art revealed. Thou art the end of the 
law, and the sum of the gospel. 

It is true, indeed, not every place shines 
with an equal lustre. But is it any detrac- 
tion from the beauty of the material world, 
the fair book of the creation, that here is 
a champaign country, and there a barren 
wilderness ; here a craggy rock, and there 
a fruitful valley ? We despise not the 
beauty of the firmament, though some 
parts of it are not sown so thick as others 
with starry lamps. But should we nearer 
view those seemingly barren places in the 
field of revelation ; should we dig into 
those rocky texts with care and reverence; 
perhaps then we might find cause to alter 
our sentiments. Even the genealogies are 
not useless, nor the ceremonies insignifi- 
cant. Even here we find rich veins of 
wisdom ; and Christ the pearl of great 
price. 

But is there not something more than 
mortal breathing through every page ? It 
is here the attentive mind is struck with 
awe, as under the impenetrable shade of 
some aspiring grove, or under the roof of 
some religious edifice. Thus angels, which 
appeared to holy men of old, struck the 
beholders with a dread for which they could 
not well account. There was something in 
their voice, in their air, in their gesture, 
which spoke them more than human. 
What loftiness of phrase in some, what 
majestic simplicity of expression in other 
passages! How unparalleled ! how inimi- 
table by mortal pen! Thus he whose name 
is called the W ord of God, in his exalted 
state is more glorious than the kings of the 
earth : and even in his humiliation there 



was something exceedingly majestic, which 
poured contempt upon princes. 

Be not ashamed of the Scriptures; " they 
are the power of God to salvation to every 
one that believeth/' O blessed W ord ! 
thou convertest the soul ; thou enlightenest 
the eyes; thou rejoicest the heart; thou 
givest wisdom unto the simple ; and sight 
unto the blind; and life unto the dead! — 
Peruse the Scriptures : your corruptions shall 
be mortified ; your graces vivified ; your 
thoughts, your words, your actions, shall 
be sanctified, be purified, be rectified. — 
These will alleviate your sorrows in ad- 
versity, and in prosperity heighten your 
enjoyments. Here, multitudes have found 
life everlasting. 

O ye who have received the truth in the 
love thereof! who have his blessed Word 
sweeter than honey to your mouth ! give 
glory to that God, who, when the human 
race were wandering in uncertainty and 
error, was pleased to make such a revela- 
tion of himself ; — a revelation even dropt, 
where we have notices conve} r ed unto us, 
more truly and certainty than from the 
famed deadly oracles of Delphos or Dodo- 
na. Praise him, who has not committed 
the intimations of his will unto the leaves 
of uncertain tradition, which every breath 
of wind might putT away ; which, in later 
ages, might have been greatly corrupted, 
by passing through a multitude of hands 
But he hath written that same Word, which 
formerly was only verbal, in a book, the 
peculiar care of Providence ; where the di 
vine revelation is kept as in a garrison, and 
needs not fear from the injuries of time 
from the cunning of Satan, nor from the 
evil designs of corrupt men. Adore him, 
who, by his Holy Spirit, informed the 
minds of holy men of old with such con- 
cealed truths : and guided their pens in 
writing these holy originals. Acknow- 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 451 



ledge his goodness, who hath preserved 
these heavenly records from flames, floods, 
and desolations ; who hath cast your lot, 
not in those dusky corners of the world, 
where the Word of God sheds not its holy 
light, or is, by public authority, prohibited 
from being consulted. 

Know thy privilege, O happy Island ! 
much are you advantaged every way be- 
yond thy neighbouring states ; but chiefly, 
that unto you are committed the Oracles 
of God. Turn not your blessing to a 
curse. Young men! search the scriptures; 
they will make you wise unto salvation ; 
you shall have more understanding than 
the ancients. Old men ! search the scrip- 
tures ; they will be the support of your old 
age, and make you to sing as in the days 
of your youth. Ye men of rank and 
station ! who dwell in lofty palaces, and 
ride in glittering chariots ! O make them 
your heritage for ever ! Ye weaker Chris- 
tians ! here is much to satisfy your craving 
appetite. Ye men of genius! here is strong 
meat to suit your nicer palates, and drive 
away disdain. 

Meditate on the law of the Lord, both 
day and night. The more you draw from 
this refreshing fountain, the more will the 
waters abound. But would you enter into 
the secret of the Lord, which is with them 
that fear him ? Bring with you a pure, an 
humble, and a fervent mind. Whom shall 
he teach knowledge ? Whom shall he make 
to understand doctrine ? Those whose 
hearts are not haughty, nor their eyes lof- 
ty ; but who are like the child weaned 
from the milk, and drawn from the breasts; 



those who are estranged from their lusts, 
who lay aside all filthiness and superfluity 
of naughtiness ; those whose souls do pant 
exceedingly, and long for God's command- 
ments ; like thee, 0 blessed David, whose 
eyes did timously prevent the night 
watches, to meditate on the statutes of 
the Lord. 

Take to yourselves, ye deluded Zealots ! 
your fabulous traditions, and hide this holy 
lamp under the bushels of foreign lan- 
guages ; and by this confess the weakness 
of your cause. Ye wild Enthusiasts! vaunt 
of the light within you ; but take heed, 
lest the light you boast is in you be dark- 
ness. Walk in the light of your fire, and 
in the sparks of your kindling, ye unbe- 
lieving Deists ! But, 0 house of Israel ! 
come, and let us walk in the light of the 
Lord. Consult this heavenly guide, O thou 
my soul ! and let your delight be in the 
law of the Lord. Let me often expatiate 
in these hallowed fields of revelation, and, 
like the disciples, pluck the full ears of 
corn ; and rub them from the husk, by 
ardent meditation and fervent prayer. 

Shine upon my soul, O heavenly Spirit ! 
— bear witness in my heart. Imprint the 
Bible there ; make this the library of God. 
Then shall I be made wiser than my 
teachers, and in all my afflictions be com- 
forted; and though I walk through death's 
dark shades, yet shall my steps be con- 
ducted unto those blissful regions, where 
" the sun shall no more go down, nor the 
moon withdraw her shining : but the Lord 
shall be my everlasting light, and my God 
my glory." 

JXev. William M'Ewen. 



( 452 ) 



An EXHORTATION to professing CHRISTIANS to imitate the 
Example of our blessed Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST, as 
displayed in his Life and Doctrines. 



np HOUGH the Old and New Testa- 
merits exhibit many patterns of piety 
and virtue in the accounts of patriarchs, 
prophets, apostles, and other eminent ser- 
vants of God ; a perfect example of holi- 
ness and obedience never appeared but in 
the person of the Messiah, who came upon 
earth for the express purpose of doing the 
will of his Father, respecting the salvation 
of mankind. 

If we trace the life of the blessed Jesus, 
from the time of his incarnation to that of 
his exaltation, we shall find that every cir- 
cumstance of it tended to that one grand 
and important end. 

At an early period he began to preach 
the great doctrine of repentance, and deli- 
vered his admirable sermon on the mount, 
containing a complete system of experi- 
mental and practical religion. He after- 
wards gave proofs of his divine mission b}^ 
working divers miracles, and displaying, in 
many instances, his power and goodness. 
He then selected his disciples, instructed 
them in his holy doctrines, vested them 
with supernatural power, and commission- 
ed them to preach the gospel of his king- 
dom. This done, he persisted himself in 
the good work with indefatigable assiduity, 
recommending unfeigned piety towards 
God, and universal benevolence to man- 
kind, by his preaching, his parables, and 
indeed by the whole tenor of his life and 
actions. Nor was there a virtue which he 
did not countenance and exemplify ; or a 
vice he did not censure or condemn. In a 



word, the holy Jesus went about doing 
good, according to the scriptural phrase ; 
that is, he not only did most essential good 
to the souls and bodies of such as presented 
themselves to his view, and supplicated his 
divine aid; but he sought the poor objects, 
on whom he might exercise his pity and 
compassion. 

His last and most important work still 
remained to be done. He was to suffer an 
ignominious death, even the death of the 
cross, to reconcile offending man to an of- 
fended God. In this he was to give an in- 
stance of obedience to the divine will, and 
love to sinful man, beyond the power of 
mortals. 

At length, after being betrayed by a 
faithless disciple, and undergoing the most 
indignant treatment from a clan equally 
cruel and perverse ; he was led to Calvary, 
the place of execution, there crucified, and 
having commended his spirit into the hands 
of his father, gave up the ghost. His sa- 
cred body was committed to the tomb ; 
but through a divine power he soon burst 
the bands of death, re-appeared to his dis- 
ciples and others, and having given them 
the most demonstrative proofs of his iden- 
tity, he was parted from them, and carried up 
into heaven, Luke xxiv. 51. 

This summary account of the life of our 
blessed Lord premised, we shall proceed 
to enforce upon professing Christians the 
imitation of his example from the follow- 
ing considerations : 

1st, Conformity in his people to the ex- 
ample 



EXHORTATIONS TO READING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 453 



ample of himself was one part of his grand I 
design, as well as the absolute will of his 
Father. The apostle Peter mentions it as 
one main end of his sufferings, because 
Christ also suffered for us, (says that apostle) 
leaving us an example, that zee might follow 
his steps. Our blessed Saviour is called the 
■way, the truth, and the life ; that is, as he 
redeemed our souls from death by his aton- 
ing sacrifice, so he is the truth and guide of 
our understandings, and the life or grand 
actuating principle of our wills and affec- 
tions, leading us into those paths which 
terminate in endless felicity. 

It is evident also, from the whole tenor 
of our blessed Lord's life and doctrines, 
that though the end of his mission was to 
deliver mankind from the curse annexed to 
the violation of the moral law, he by no 
means meant its abrogation ; nay, he posi- 
tively declares that he came not to destroy, 
but to fulfil, the law. He punctually ad- 
hered, not only to those parts of it which 
respected the duties owing to God and 
man, but even to the ritual ceremonies. His 
obedience was as perfect as his atonement 
for the delinquency of fallen man, which 
rendered his merits completely adequate to 
the demands of law and justice ; so that 
when he expired upon the cross, it might 
with the utmost propriety be said, It is 
finished, meaning the important work of 
man's redemption. To corroborate this 
matter, he particularly cautions his follow- 
ers not to trust to the mere profession of 
his religion, without practising the duties 
of it, as appears from his declaration : Not 
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he 
that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven, Matt. vii. 21. 

He further demonstrates the necessity 
of a conformity to his example, under the 
idea of regeneration, that is, a change of 



the heart and conduct from evil to good, in 
his interview with Nicodemus, a man of 
great authority with the Jews, declaring to 
him, that eaecept a man be born again (spi- 
ritually considered) he cannot see the king- 
dom of God, John iii. 3. In a word, if we 
advert to the transactions of his life, we 
must be convinced, that they have one uni- 
form undeviating tendency to promote ho- 
liness, as a necessary evidence of a claim 
and title to the benefits purchased by his 
death and sufferings. 

It appears from scriptural evidence, that 
one of* the great purposes of God, in the 
Messiah's taking upon him human nature, 
or becoming like unto us in every instance, 
sin excepted, was, that we might also, as 
far as our fallibility will admit, be like his 
Son ; or, in other words, that as he, by 
taking our nature, was like unto us, so we, 
by imitating his example, might be like 
unto him, according to the words of the 
apostle, Rom. viii. 26. The Word incar- 
nate is the great example of all sincere 
genuine professors of the religion of Christ, 
and thence arose the precept of the last- 
mentioned apostle, Put ye on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, Rom. xiii. 14. The allegory points 
out the duty, intimating, that as a garment 
is composed and made of the same fashion 
with the body, and applied to each part ac- 
cording to its respective proportion, so we 
should put on Christ, or imitate, as far as 
possible, his character, conforming to every 
particular part, in order to demonstrate 
whose image and superscription we bear, 
and be acknowledged as sons, from our re- 
semblance to our great Head and Represen- 
tative, who disdained not to call us brethren. 

The apostle John writes to the same pur- 
port in his first epistle, second chapter, and 
sixth verse; He that saith he abideth in him 
(Christ) ought himself also to walk even as 
he walked. Here it is evidently implied 
5 Y that 



454 



AN EXHORTATION TO PROFESSING CHRISTIANS. 



that our actions should be framed accord- 
ing to the copy set us by our great Lord 
and Master, and we should transcribe the 
original as nearly as possible to the life. 
Those who contemplate seriously on the 
affection, fervour, and resignation, which 
the blessed Jesus evinced in all his devo- 
tions, will thereby be taught and excited 
to holy meditation and fervent prayer. 

The sweetness of his disposition, his cha- 
rity to his very enemies, his reprehensions 
of the Scribes and Pharisees, his candid 
and ingenuous behaviour to all men, in- 
culcate powerfully the virtues of patience, 
humility, candour, and justice, in all our 
actions. 

Upon the whole, the life of our blessed 
Lord should not only be the subject of our 
admiration, but also of our imitation. Then 
shall we in the truest sense walk as he 
walked, treading in his steps, looking con- 
stantly at our grand pattern, and glorify- 
ing him, as he, by his obedience, glorified 
his Father. 

2dly, The greatest blessings, both tem- 
poral and spiritual, are annexed to a holy 
and religious life, flowing from a principle 
of love to God, and which essentially con- 
sists in following the example of the blessed 
Jesus. 

In the Old Testament, a long and pros- 
perous life were the promises of the cove- 
nant. The hopes of the Israelites were 
built upon it, and it was the support of all 
their duty. See Exodus xv. 26. and xxiii. 
25, 26. Solomon enjoins holiness and 
obedience upon the same principle. Fear 
the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall he 
health to thy navel, and marrow to thy hones, 
Proverbs iii. 7, 8. ; and again, verse 16. 
Length of days is in her right hand, (that is, 
Wisdom,) and in her left hand riches and 
honour. There are divers others passages to 
the same purport. 



Under the gospel dispensation the con- 
sideration is more particularly enforced. 
The apostle Paul calls children to observe 
the fifth cammandment, from the same ar- 
gument which was used on the first promul- 
gation of it : Honour thy father and mother, 
(which is the first commandment with pro- 
mise,) that it may be well with thee, and 
thou mayest live long upon the earth, Ephes. 
vi. 2, 3. It is to be observed, that though 
the gospel is built upon better promises 
than the law, it annexes all the promises 
of the latter to obedience, according to the 
apostle's words, 1 Tim. iv. 8. Godliness 
is profitable unto all things, having promise 
of the life that now is, and of that which is tc 
come. 

When our blessed Saviour, in his sermon 
on the mount, particularizes the beatitudes, 
he cites in one instance a temporal blessing, 
and that in the very words of the Old Tes- 
tament, Matt. v. 5. Blessed are the meek, 
for they shall inherit the earth; which ex- 
pression corresponds with that in Psalm 
xxxvii. 11. But the meek shall inherit the 
earth. This he did to shew, that that part 
of the old covenant, which respects moral 
duties, and the gracious rewards of obe- 
dience to the divine laws, remains firm, 
and included in the conditions of the 
gospel. 

Further, a religious life, according to 
the rule and example of Jesus Christ, as 
propounded in his gospel, is conducive to 
peace of mind, and an approving consci- 
ence, than which no temporal blessings 
can be more important. An anxious care 
about worldly pursuits involves the mind 
in perplexity and confusion. Vice and in- 
temperance, of every kind, bring with them 
even their own temporal punishments, and 
expose their votaries to bodily diseases ; 
nor can they be recognized even by the 
abandoned without conscious horror. 

On 



AN EXHORTATION TO PROFESSING CHRISTIANS. 



455 



On the other hand, according to the 
wise man's saying, Wisdom's ways are ways 
of pleasantness, and all her paths are paths of 
mace. The mind of that man who follows 
the example of his blessed Saviour, and 
walks even as he walked, is in general 
calm, composed, and serene. He is not 
affected to an inordinate degree by any of 
the events of this precarious state ; he is 
not elated by prosperity, nor depressed by 
adversity, because he has a fixed regard 
to a superintending Providence ; he knows 
that the wise Disposer of events cannot 
but do right ; and he is firmly persuaded, 
that all things work together for good to 
those that love God, and keep his com- 
mandments. The due discharge of our 
duty to God and man must be attended 
with an approving conscience, which arms 
the mind against what are called the ills of 
life, and enables it to sustain their most 
pointed attacks with Christian fortitude 
and intrepidity. These are some of the 
principal temporal blessings that attend a 
holy and religious life, as exemplified in 
the character of our blessed Lord and Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ. 

With respect to spiritual blessings, the 
most important are derived from a religious 
life, according to the sacred text before 
cited, Godliness hath the promise of this life, 
and of that which is to come. All true 
Christians are the sons of God, because 
they are coheirs with Christ, and partakers 
of the divine nature. It is observable, that 
the only solid foundation for a good hope, 
respecting a future state of bliss, is built 
upon duty. We know that zee have passed 
from death unto life, (why ?) because we love 
the brethren, 1 John iii. 14. implying, that 
this love (and the fruits of it) can alone 
evidence our title to the privileges of Chris- 
tians, since we cannot be Christians with- 
out it. 



These spiritual blessings are various, and 
expressed in scripture under various forms, 
as, tasting of the heavenly gift ; partaking of 
the Holy Ghost ; tasting of the good word of 
God, and the powers of the world to come, 
Heb. vi. 4, 5, &c. These are antecedent 
to the blessings of the glorified state, and 
designed as preparatory to their reception. 
It is positively affirmed in scripture, that 
without holiness no man shall see the Lord ; 
therefore that essential requisite, included 
in the phrases first cited, is given to all 
those who seek it in sincerity and truth. 
In a word, the followers of the example of 
Christ are, and will be, blessed with grace 
here and glory hereafter. In these centre 
all real felicity ; man's chief end being to 
glorify God, and enjoy him for ever. 

3dly, and lastly, These considerations 
should induce us all to inquire seriously 
whether we find in ourselves a disposition 
to imitate the example of our great Lord 
and Master, as displayed in the sacred 
history of his life, to which we have been 
lately attending ? If it has produced that 
happy effect, let us press forward towards 
the mark for the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus. As we have borne 
the image of the earthly, may we also bear 
the image of the heavenly ; for let us re- 
member, that in vain we are called Chris- 
tians, if we live not according to the ex- 
ample and discipline of Christ, the great 
author of the institution. The zeal of the 
primitive Christians, who were first deno- 
minated so at Antioch, as recorded in the 
Acts of the Apostles, in imitating the ex- 
ample of their great Master, was abun- 
dantly evident. Their very enemies were 
observed frequently to say, " See how 
those Christians love one another !" No 
hardship, no threatening, not even death 
itself, could deter them from the prosecu- 
tion of their duty. They might be said to 

follow 



456 THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



follow their master wherever he went, 
and many of them sealed their profession 
with their blood. 

We live in happier days. We enjoy 
the free exercise of religion, and have con- 
stantly opportunities of doing and getting 
good. 

The sacred volume is expanded to our 



view, and the brightest example presented 
for our imitation, even that of the great 
and immaculate Redeemer. If Ave follow 
it, the reward is sure; if we wilfully neg- 
lect it, the punishment is certain. There- 
fore, my beloved brethren, let me, by way 
of conclusion, seriously exhort j r ou to think 
! on these things. 



The EPISTLE of St. CLEMEMT to the CORINTHIANS. 



The Church of God which is at Rome, to , 
the Church of God which is at Corinth, j 
elect, sanctified, by the will of God, \ 
through Jesus Christ our Lord ; grace j 
and peace from the Almighty God, by I 
Jesus Christ, be multiplied unto you. 

Brethren, 

Hip HE sudden and unexpected dangers 
-"- and calamities that have fallen upon 
us, have, we fear, made us the more slow 
in our consideration of those things which 
you inquired of us ; as also of that wicked 
and detestable sedition, so unbecoming the 
elect of God, which a few heady and self- 
willed men have fomented to such a de- 
gree of madness, that your venerable and 
renowned name, so worthy of all men to 
be beloved, is greatly blasphemed thereby. 
For who that has ever been among you, 
has not experimented the firmness of your 
faith, and its fruitfulness in all good works? 
and admired the temper and moderation 
of your religion in Christ? and published 
abroad the magnificence of your hospita- 
lity 7 and thought you happy in your per- 
fect and certain knowledge of the gospel? 
For ye did all things without respect of 
persons ; and walked according to the laws 



of God, being subject to those who had 
the rule over you ; and giving the honour 
that was fitting, to such as were the aged 
among you. Ye commanded the young- 
men to think those things that were modest 
and grave. The women ye exhorted to 
do all things unblameably, and seemly, and 
with pure conscience ; loving their own 
husbands, as was fitting ; and that keeping 
themselves within the bounds of a due 
obedience, they should order their houses 
gravely with all discretion. 

2. Ye were all of you humble-minded, 
not boasting of any thing ; desiring rather 
to be subject than to govern ; to give than 
to receive, being content with the portion 
God had dispensed to you ; and hearken- 
ing diligently to his word, ye were enlarged 
in your bowels, having his sufferings al- 
ways before your eyes. Thus a firm, and 
blessed, and profitable peace, was given 
unto you ; and an unsatiable desire of 
doing good, and a plentiful effusion of the 
Holy Ghost, was upon all of you : and be- 
ing full of good designs, ye did with great 
readiness of mind, and with a religious con- 
fidence, stretch forth your hands to God 
Almighty ; beseeching him to be merciful 
unto you, if in any thing ye had unwil- 
lingly 



THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



457 



lingly sinned against him. Ye contended 
day and night for the whole brotherhood ; 
that with compassion, and a good con- 
science, the number of his elect might be 
saved. Ye were sincere, and without of- 
fence toward each other ; not mindful of 
injuries : all sedition and schism was an 
abomination unto you. Ye bewailed every 
one his neighbour's sins, esteeming their 
defects your own. Ye were kind one to 
another without grudging ; being ready to 
every good work. And being adorned with 
a conversation altogether virtuous and re- 
ligious, ye did all things in the fear of God ; 
whose commandments were written upon 
the tables of your hearts. 

3. All honour and enlargement was 
given unto you ; and so was fulfilled that 
which is written, " My beloved did eat 
" and drink, he was enlarged and waxed 
" fat, and he kicked." From hence came 
emulation, and envy, and strife, and sedi- 
tion ; persecution and disorder, war and 
captivity. So they who were of no re- 
nown, lifted up themselves against the 
honourable ; those of no reputation, against 
those that were in respect ; the foolish 
against the wise ; the young men against 
the aged. Therefore righteousness and 
peace are departed from you, because every 
one hath forsaken the fear of God, and is 
grown blind in his faith ; nor walketh by 
the rule of God's commandments, nor liv- 
eth as is fitting in Christ : but every one 
follows his own wicked lusts ; having taken 
up an unjust and wicked envy, by which 
death first entered into the world. 

4. For thus it is written ; " And in pro- 
" cess of time it came to pass, that Cain 
" brought of the fruit of the ground an 
" offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he 
'* also brought of the firstlings of his flock, 
" and of the fat thereof ; and the Lord had 
" respect unto Abel, and to his offering. 



" But unto Cain, and to his offering, he 
" had no respect. And Cain was very sor- 
" rowful, and his countenance fell. And 
" the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou 
" sorrowful ? and why is thy countenance 
" fallen ? If thou shalt offer aright, but 
" not divide aright, hast thou not sinned ? 
" Hold thy peace : unto thee shall be his 
" desire, and thou shalt rule over him. 
" And Cain said unto Abel his brother, 
" Let us go down into the field. And it 
" came to pass, as they were in the field, 
" that Cain rose up against Abel his bro- 
" ther, and slew him." You see, brethren, 
how envy and emulation wrought the death 
of a brother. For this our father Jacob 
fled from the face of his brother Esau. It 
was this that caused Joseph to be persecut- 
ed even unto death, and to come into 
bondage. Even forced Moses to flee from 
the face of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, when 
he heard his own countrymen ask him, 
Who made thee a judge and a ruler over 
us ? Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the 
Egyptian yesterday? Through envy Aaron 
and Miriam were shut oat of the camp, 
from the rest of the congregation, seven 
days. Emulation sent Dathan and Abi- 
ram quick into the grave ; because they 
raised up a sedition against Moses, the 
servant of God. For this David was not 
only hated of strangers, but was persecuted 
even by Saul, the king of Israel. 

5. But not to insist upon ancient exam- 
ples, let us come to those Worthies that 
have been nearest to us ; and take the 
brave examples of our own age. Through 
zeal and envy, the most faithful and righ- 
teous pillars of the church have been per- 
secuted, even to the most grievous deaths. 
Let us set before our eyes the holy apos- 
tles : Peter by unjust envy underwent not 
one or two, but many sufferings ; till at 
last, being martyred, he went~ to the place 

5 Z of 



458 THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



of glory that was promised unto him. For 
the same cause did Paul in like manner 
receive the reward of his patience. Seven 
times he was in bonds ; he was whipped, 
was stoned ; he preached both in the east 
and in the west, leaving behind him the 
glorious report of his faith ; and so having 
taught the whole world righteousness, and 
for that end travelled even to the utmost 
bounds of the west ; he at last suffered 
martyrdom by the command of the go- 
vernors, and departed out of the world, 
and went unto his holy place ; being be- 
come a most eminent pattern of patience 
unto all ages. 

6". To these holy apostles were joined a 
very great number of others, who having 
through envy undergone in like manner 
many pains and torments, have left a glo- 
rious example to us. For this not only 
men, but women, have been persecuted ; 
and having suffered very grievous and cruel 
punishments, have finished the course of 
their faith with firmness ; and though weak 
in body, yet received a glorious reward. 
This has alienated the minds even of wo- 
men from their husbands, and changed 
what was once said by our father Adam, 
" This is now bone of my bone, and flesh 
" of my flesh/' In a word, envy and strife 
have overturned whole cities, and rooted 
out great nations from off the earth. 

7- These things, beloved, we write unto 
you, not only for your instruction, but also 
for your remembrance. For we are all in 
the same lists, and the same combat is pre- 
pared for us all. Wherefore let us laj* aside 
all vain and empty cares ; and let us come 
up to the glorious and venerable rule of 
our holy calling. Let us consider what is 
good, and acceptable, and well pleasing, in 
the sight of him that made us. Let us look 
stedfastly to the blood of Christ, and see 
how precious his blood is in the sight of 



God. Which being shed for our salvation, 
has obtained the grace of repentance for 
all the world. Let us search into all the 
ages that have gone before us ; and let us 
learn, that our Lord has in every one of 
them still given place for repentance to all 
such as would turn to him. Noah preach- 
ed repentance ; and as many as hearkened 
to him were saved. Jonah denounced de- 
struction against the Ninevites ; howbeit 
they, repenting of their sins, found God in 
their prayers ; and were saved, though they 
were strangers to the covenant of God. 

8. Hence we find how all the ministers 
of the grace of God have spoken, by the 
Holy Spirit, of repentance. And even the 
Lord of all has himself declared, with an 
oath, concerning it, " As I live, saith the 
" Lord, I desire not the death of a sinner, 
" but that he should repent." Adding 
farther this good sentence, saying, " Turn 
" from your iniquity, O house of Israel. — 
" Say unto the children of my people, 
" Though your sins should reach from 
" earth to heaven, and though they should 
" be redder than scarlet, and blacker than 
" sackcloth ; yet if ye shall turn to me 
" Avith all your heart, and shall call me, 
" Father, I will hearken to you, as to a 
" holy people." And in another place he 
saith on this wise, " Wash ye, make you 
" clean : put away the evil of your doings 
" from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil, 
" learn to do well ; seek judgment, relieve 
" the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead 
" for the widow. Come now, and let us 
" reason together, saith the Lord ; though 
" your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as 
" white as snow ; though they be red as 
" crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye 
"• be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the 
" good of the land : but if ye refuse and 
" rebel, ye shall be devoured with the 
" sword ; for the mouth of the Lord hath 

" spoken 



THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 459 



" spoken it." These things has God esta- 
blished by his almighty will, desiring that 
all should come to repentance. 

9- Wherefore let us obey his excellent 
and glorious will ; and imploring his mercy 
and goodness, let us fall down upon our 
faces before him, and cast ourselves upon 
his mercy; laying aside all vanity, and con- 
tention, and envy, which leads unto death. 
Let us look up to those who have the most 
perfectly ministered to his excellent glory. 
Let us take Enoch for our example ; who 
being found righteous in obedience, was 
translated, and his death was not known. 
Noah being proved to be faithful, did by 
his ministry preach regeneration to the 
world ; and the Lord saved by him all the 
living creatures, that went with one accord 
together into the ark. 

10. Abraham, who was called God's 
Friend, was in like manner found faithful ; 
inasmuch as he obeyed the commands of 
God. By obedience he went out of his 
own country, and from his ow T n kindred, 
and from his father's house ; that so forsak- 
ing a small country, and a weak affinity, 
and a little house, he might inherit the pro- 
mises of God. For thus God saith unto him, 
" Get thee out of thy country, and from 
" thy kindred, and from thy father's house, 
" unto a land that I will shew thee. And I 
" will make thee a great nation, and I will 
" bless thee, and make thy name great, and 
" thou shalt be blessed. And I will bless 
" them that bless thee, and curse them that 
" curse thee : and in thee shall all the fami- 
" lies of the earth be blessed/' And again, 
when he separated himself from Lot, God 
said unto him, " Lift up now thine eyes, 
" and look from the place where thou 
" art, northward, and southward, and 
" eastward, and westward, for all the land 
" which thou seest, to thee will I give it, 
" and to thy seed for ever. And I will 



" make thy seed as the dust of the earth ; 
" so that if a man can number the dust of 
" the earth, then shall thy seed also be 
" numbered." And again he saith, " And 
" God brought forth Abraham, and said 
" unto him, Look now towards heaven, 
" and tell the stars, if thou be able to num- 
" ber them : so shall thy seed be. And 
" Abraham believed God, and it was 
" counted to him for righteousness." 
Through faith and hospitality he had a son 
given him in his old age : and through obe- 
dience he offered him up in sacrifice to 
God, upon one of the mountains which 
God shewed unto him. 

11. By hospitality and godliness was Lot 
saved out of Sodom, when all the country 
round about was destroyed by fire and brim- 
stone. The Lord thereby making it mani- 
fest, that he will not forsake those that trust 
in him ; but will bring the disobedient to 
punishment and correction. For his wife 
who went out with him, being of a differ- 
ent mind, and not continuing in the same 
obedience, was for that reason set forth for 
an example, being turned into a pillar of 
salt unto this day. That so all men may 
know, that those who are double-minded, 
and distrustful of the power of God, are 
prepared for condemnation, and to be a 
sign to all succeeding ages. 

12. By faith and hospitality was Rahab 
the harlot saved. For when the spies w T ere 
sent by Joshua the son of Nun to search out 
Jericho, and the king of Jericho knew that 
they were come to spy out the country; he 
sent men to take them, that so they might 
be put to death. Rahab therefore, being 
hospitable, received them, and hid them 
under the stalks of flax, on the top of 
her house. And when the messengers 
that were sent by the king came unto 
her, and asked her, saying, " There came 
" men unto thee to spy out the land ; bring 

u them 



460 THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



" them forth, for so hath the king com- 
" manded ; she answered, The two men 
" whom ye seek came unto me, but pre- 
" sently they departed, and are gone :" 
not discovering them unto them. Then 
she said unto the spies, " I know that the 
" Lord your God hath given this city into 
" your hands ; for the fear of you is fallen 
" upon all that dwell therein. When 
" therefore ye shall have taken it, ye shall 
" save me, and my father's house." And 
they answered her, saying, " It shall be as 
" thou hast spoke unto us. Therefore when 
" thou shalt know that we are near, thou 
" shalt gather all thy family together, upon 
" the house-top, and they shall be saved ; 
" but all that shall be found without thy 
44 house shall be destroyed." And they 
gave her moreover a sign, that she should 
hang out of her house a scarlet rope ; shew- 
ing thereby, that by the blood of our Lord 
there should be redemption to all that be- 
lieve and hope in God. Ye see, beloved, 
how there was not only faith, but prophecy 
too, in this woman. 

13. Let us therefore humble ourselves, 
brethren, laying aside all pride, and boast- 
ing, and foolishness, and anger, and let us 
do as it is written. For thus saith the Holy 
Spirit, " Let not the wise man glory in his 
" wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, 
" nor the rich man in his riches ; but let 
"him that glorieth glory in the Lord, to 
" seek him, and to do judgment and justice." 
Above all, remembering the words of the 
Lord Jesus, which he spake concerning 
equity and long-suffering, saying, " Be 
" merciful, and ye shall obtain mercy : 
" forgive, and ye shall be forgiven : as ye 
i( do, so shall it be done unto you : as ye 
6i give, so shall it be given unto you : as 
" ye judge, so shall ye be judged : as ye 
" are kind to others, so shall God be kind 
" to you : with what measure ye mete, 



" with the same shall it be measured to 
" you again." By this command, and by 
these rules, let us establish ourselves, that 
so we may always walk obediently to his 
holy words : being humble-minded ; for 
so says the Holy Scripture, " Upon whom 
" shall I look? even upon him that is poor, 
" and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles 
" at my word." 

14. It is therefore just and righteous, men 
and brethren, that we should become obe- 
dient unto God, rather than follow such as 
through pride and sedition ha ve made them- 
selves the ringleaders of a detestable emula- 
tion. For it is not an ordinary harm that 
we shall do ourselves, but rather a very great 
danger that we shall run, if we shall rashly 
give up ourselves to the wills of men, who 
promote strife and seditions, to turn us aside 
from that which is fitting. But let us be 
kind to one another, according to the com- 
passion and sweetness of him that made us. 
For it is written, " The merciful shall in- 
" herit the earth, and they that are without 
" evil shall be left upon it: but the trans - 
" gressors shall perish from off the face of it/' 
And again he saith, " I have seen the wick- 
" ed in great power, and spreading himself 
" like the cedars of Libanus. I passed 
" by, and, lo, he was not ; I sought his 
" place, but it could not be found. Keep 
" innocency, and do the thing that is right ; 
" for there shall be a remnant to the peace- 
" able man." 

15. Let us therefore hold fast to those 
who religiously follow peace ; and not to 
such as only pretend to desire it. For he 
saith in a certain place, " This people 
" honoureth me with their lips, but their 
" heart is far trom me." And again, " They 
" bless with their mouth, but curse in 
" their heart." And again he saith, " They 
" loved him with their mouth, and with 
" their tongue they lied to him. For 

" their 



THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 46i 



" their heart was not right with him, nei- | 
" ther were they faithful in his covenant. 
" Let all deceitful lips become dumb, and 
" the tongue that speaketh proud things. 
" Who have said, With our tongue will we 
" prevail ; our lips are our own ; who is 
i; lord over us ? For the oppression of 
k< the poor, for the sighing of the needy, 
" now will I arise, saith the Lord ; I will 
" set him in safety, I will deal confidently 
" with him." 

16. For Christ is theirs who are humble, 
and not who exalt themselves over his flock. 
The sceptre of the majesty of God, our 
Lord Jesus Christ, came not in the show 
of pride and arrogance, though he could 
have done so ; but with humility, as the 
Holy Ghost had before spoken concerning 
him. For thus he saith, " Lord, who hath 
" believed our report, and to whom is the 
" arm of the Lord revealed ? For he shall 
" grow up before him as a tender plant, 
" and as a root out of a dry ground. He 
" hath no form nor comeliness, and when 
" we shall see him, there is no beauty that 
" we should desire him. He is despised, 
" and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows, 
" and acquainted with grief. And we hid, 
" as it were, our faces from him ; he was 
" despised, and we esteemed him not. 
" Surely he hath borne our griefs, and car- 
" ried our sorrows : yet we did esteem him 
" stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 
" But he was wounded for our transsres- 

O 

" sions ; he was bruised for our iniquities ; 
" the chastisement of our peace was upon 
" him, and with his stripes we are healed. 
" All we like sheep have gone astray ; we 
" have turned every one to his own way, 
" and the Lord hath laid on him the ini- 
" quity of us all. He was oppressed, and 
" he was afflicted, yet he opened not his 
" mouth ; he is brought as a lamb to the 
" slaughter • and as a sheep before her 



" shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his 
" mouth. He was taken from prison, and 
" from judgment ; and who shall declare 
" his generation ? For he was cut off out 
" of the land of the living ; for the trans- 
" gression of my people was he stricken. 
" And he made his grave with the wicked, 
" and with the rich in his death ; because 
" he had done no violence, neither was 
" any deceit found in his mouth. Yet it 
" pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath 
" put him to grief : when thou shalt make 
" his soul an offering for sin, he shall see 
" his seed, he shall prolong his days ; and 
" the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in 
" his hand. He shall see of the travail of 
" his soul, and shall be satisfied : by his 
" knowledge shall my righteous servant 
" justify many ; for he shall bear their ini- 
" quities. Therefore will I divide him a 
" portion with the great, and he shall di- 
" vide the spoil with the strong ; because 
" he hath poured out his soul unto death ; 
" and he was numbered with the trans- 
" gressors, and he bare the sin of many, 
" and made intercession for the transgres- 
" sors." And again he himself saith, " I 
" am a worm, and no man, a reproach of 
" men, and despised of the people. All 
" they that see me laugh me to scorn ; they 
" shoot out their lips ; they shake their 
" head, saying, He trusted in the Lord, 
" that he would deliver him : let him deli- 
" ver him, seeing he delighted in him." 
Ye see, beloved, what the pattern is that 
has been given to us. For if the Lord thus 
humbled himself, what should we do who 
are brought by him under the yoke of his 
grace ? 

17. Let us be followers of those who 
went about in goat skins and sheep skins, 
! preaching the coming of Christ. Such 
: were Elias, and Eliseus, and Ezekiel, the 
J prophets. And let us add to these such 
6 A others 



462 THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



others as have received the like testimony. 
Abraham has been greatly witnessed of, 
having been called the friend of God. 
And yet he, stedfastly beholding the glory 
of God, says, with all humility, " I am 
" dust and ashes." Again, of Job it is thus 
written, " that he was just, and without 
" blame, true ; one that served God, and 
" abstained from all evil." Yet he, ac- 
cusing himself, says, " No man is free 
" from pollution, no not though he should 
" live but one day." Moses was called 
faithful in all God's house ; and by his con- 
duct the Lord punished Israel by stripes 
and plagues. And even this man, though 
thus greatly honoured, spake not greatly of 
himself ; but when the oracle of God was 
delivered to him out of the bush, he said, 
" Who am I, that thou dost send me? I 
" am of a slender voice, and a slow tongue." 
And again he saith, " I am as the smoke 
" of the pot." 

18. And what shall we say of David, so 
highly testified of in the holy Scriptures ; to 
whom God said, " I have found a man after 
" my own heart, David the son of Jesse ; 
" with my holy oil have I anointed him ?" 
But yet he himself saith unto God, " Have 
" mercy upon me, O God, according to 
" thy loving-kindness ; according unto the 
" multitude of thy tender mercies blot out 
" my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly 
" from mine iniquity ; and cleanse me from 
" my sin. For I acknowledge my trans- 
" gression, and my sin is ever before me. 
" Against thee only have I sinned, and 
" done this evil in thy sight, that thou 
" mightest be justified when thou speakest, 
" and be clear when thou judgest. Be- 
" hold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in 
" sin did my mother conceive me. Be- 
" hold, thou desirest truth in the inward 
" parts ; and in the hidden part thou shalt 
" make me to know wisdom. Purge me 



" with hyssop, and I shall be clean ; wasn 
" me, and 1 shall be whiter than snow. 
" Make me to hear joy and gladness, that 
" the bones which thou hast broken may 
" rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, 
" and blot out all mine iniquities. Create 
" in me a clean heart, O God, and renew 
" a right spirit within me. Cast me not 
" away from thy presence, and take not 
" thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto 
" me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold 
" me with thy free Spirit. Then will I teach 
" transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall 
" be converted unto thee. Deliver me from 
" blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my 
" salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud 
" of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou 
" my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth 
" thy praise. For thou desirest not sacri- 
" fice, else would I give it ; thou delight- 
" est not in burnt-offerings. The sacrifices 
" of God are a broken spirit ; a broken 
" and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt 
" not despise." 

19- Thus has the humility and godly 
fear of these great and excellent men, re- 
corded in the Scriptures, through obedi- 
ence, made not only us, but also the ge- 
nerations before us, better ; even as many 
as have received his holy oracles with fear 
and truth. Having therefore so many and 
such great and glorious examples, let 
us return to that peace, which was the 
mark that from the beginning was set be- 
fore us : let us look up to the Father and 
Creator of the whole world ; and let us 
hold fast to his glorious and exceeding 
gifts and benefits of peace. Let us consi- 
der and behold, with the eyes of our un- 
derstanding, his long-suffering will ; and 
think how gentle and patient he is towards 
his whole creation. 

20. The heavens, moving by his ap- 
pointment, are subject to him in peace. 

Day 



THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 463 



Day and night accomplish the courses that 
he has allotted unto them, not disturbing 
one another. The sun and moon, and all 
the several companies and constellations 
of the stars, run the courses that he has 
appointed to them in concord, without de- 
parting in the least from them. The fruit- 
ful earth yields its food plentifully in due 
season both to man and beast, and to all 
animals that are upon it, according to his 
will ; not disputing, nor altering any thing 
of what was ordered by him. So also the 
unfathomable and unsearchable floods of 
the deep are kept in by his command ; and 
the conflux of the vast sea, being brought 
together by his order into its several col- 
lections, passes not the bounds that he has 
set to it ; but as he appointed it, so it re- 
mains. For he said, " Hitherto shalt thou 
" come, and thy floods shall be broken 
" within thee/' The ocean, impassable to 
mankind, and the worlds that are beyond 
it, are governed by the same commands of 
their great Master. Spring and summer, 
autumn and winter, give place peaceably 
to each other. The several quarters of the 
winds fulfil their work in their seasons, 
without offending one another. The ever- 
flowing fountains, made both for pleasure 
and health, never fail to reach out their 
breasts, to support the life of men. Even 
the smallest creatures live together in peace 
and concord with each other. All these 
has the great Creator and Lord of all com- 
manded to observe peace and concord, be- 
ing good to all; but especially to us who 
flee to his mercy through our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; to whom be glory, and majesty, 
for ever and ever. Amen. 

21. Take heed, beloved, that his many 
blessings be not to us to condemnation ; 
except we shall walk worthy of him, doing 
with one consent what is good and pleasing 
in his sight. " The Spirit of the Lord is 



" a candle, searching out the inward part 
" of the belly." Let us therefore consider 
how near he is to us ; and how that none 
of our thoughts, or reasonings which we 
frame within ourselves, are hid from him. 
It is therefore just that we should not for- 
sake our rank, by doing contrary to his 
will. Let us choose to offend a few foolish 
and inconsiderate men, lifted up and glo- 
rying in their pride, rather than God. Let 
us reverence our Lord Jesus Christ, whose 
blood was given for us ; let us honour those 
who are set over us ; let us respect the aged 
that are amongst us ; and let us instruct the 
younger men in the discipline and fear of 
the Lord. Our wives let us direct to do 
that which is good. Let them shew forth 
a lovely habit of purity in all their conver- 
sation, with a sincere affection of meek- 
ness : let the government of their tongues 
be made manifest by their silence ; let their 
charity be without respect of persons, alike 
i towards all such as religiously fear God. 
Let their children be bred up in the in- 
struction of Christ ; and especially let them 
learn how great a power humility has with 
God ; how much a pure and holy charity 
avails with him ; how excellent and great 
his fear is ; and how it will save all such 
as turn to him with holiness in a pure mind. 
For he is the searcher of the thoughts 
and counsels of the heart ; whose breath is 
in us, and when he pleases he can take it 
from us. 

22. But all these things must be con- 
firmed by the faith which is in Christ : for 
so he himself bespeaks us by the Holy 
Ghost. " Come, ye children, and hearken 
" unto me, and I will teach you the fear 
" of the Lord. What man is there that 
" desireth life, and loveth to see good days ' 
" Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips 
" that they speak no guile. Depart from 
" evil, and do good ; seek peace, and ensue 

" it. 



464 THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORnviHIANS. 



" it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the 
" righteous, and his ears are open unto 
" their prayers. But the face of the Lord 
" is against them that do evil, to cut off the 
" remembrance of them from the earth. 
" The righteous cried, and the Lord heard 
" him, and delivered him out of all his 
" troubles. Many are the troubles of the 
" wicked ; but they that trust in the Lord, 
" mercy shall encompass them about." 

23. Our all-merciful and beneficent Fa- 
ther hath bowels of compassion towards 
them that fear him ; and kindly and lov- 
ingly bestows his graces upon all such as 
come to him with a simple mind. Where- 
fore let us not waver, neither let us have 
any doubts in our hearts of his excellent 
and glorious gifts. Let that be far from us 
which is written, " Miserable are the dou- 
" ble-minded, and those who are doubtful 
" in their hearts. Who say, These things 
" have we heard, and our fathers have told 
" us these things : but, behold, we are 
" grown old, and none of them has hap- 
" pened to us." O ye fools ! consider the 
trees ; take the vine for an example : first 
it sheds its leaves ; then it buds ; after that 
it spreads its leaves ; then it flowers ; then 
come the sour grapes ; and after them 
follows the ripe fruit. Ye see how in a 
little time the fruit of the tree comes to 
maturity. Of a truth, yet a little while, 
and his will shall suddenly come, and not 
tarry ; the holy Scripture itself bearing wit- 
ness, that " he shall quickly come, and not 
" tarry ; and that the Lord shall suddenly 
" come to his temple, even the holy One 
" whom ye look for." 

24. Let us consider, beloved, how the 
Lord does continually shew us, that there 
shall be a future resurrection ; of which he 
has made our Lord Jesus Christ the first- 
fruits, raising him from the dead. Let us 
contemplate, beloved, the resurrection that 



is continually made before our eyes. Daj 
and night manifest a resurrection to us 
The night lies down, and the day arises 
again the day departs, and the night comes 
Let us behold the fruits of the earth. 



on. 



Every one sees how the seed is sown. The 
sower goes forth, and casts it upon the 
earth ; and the seed, which when it was 
sown fell upon the earth dry and naked, in 
time dissolves ; and from the dissolution, 
the great power of the providence of the 
Lord raises it again ; and of one seed many 
arise, and bring forth fruit. 

25. And shall we then think it to be any 
very great and strange thing, for the Lord 
of all to raise up those that religiously serve 
him in the assurance of a good faith, when 
he shews us the greatness of his power to 
fulfil his promise ? For he says in a cer- 
tain place, " Thou shalt raise me up, 
" and I shall confess unto thee." And 
again, " I laid me down and slept, and 
" awaked, because thou art with me." 
And again, Job says, " Thou shalt raise up 
" this flesh of mine, that has suffered all 
" these things/' 

26. Having therefore this hope, let us 
hold fast to him who is faithful in all his 
promises, and righteous in all his judg- 
ments ; who has commanded us not to lie, 
how much more will he not himself lie ? 
For nothing is impossible with God, but to 
lie. Let this faith then be stirred up again 
in us ; and let us consider that all things 
are nigh unto him. By the word of his 
power he made all things ; and by the 
same word he is able (whenever he will) 
to destroy them. " Who shall say unto 
" him, What doest thou ? Or who shall re- 

! " sist the power of his strength ?" When, 
j and as he pleaseth, he will do all things ; 
' and nothing shall pass away of all that has 
i been determined by him. All things are 
open before him ; nor can any thing be 

hid 



THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



hid from his counsel. " The heavens de- 
" clare the glory of God, and the firma- 
" ment sheweth his handy work. Day 
" unto day uttereth speech, and night unto 
" nioht sheweth knowledge. There is no 
" speech nor language where their voice is 
" not heard." 

27. Seeing then all things are seen and 
heard by God ; let us fear him, and let us 
lay aside our wicked works which proceed 
from ill desires ; that through his mercy 
we may be delivered from the condemna- 
tion to come. For whither can any of 
us flee from his mighty hand ? Or what 
world shall receive any of those who run 
away from him ? For thus saith the Scrip- 
ture in a certain place, " Whither shall 
" I flee from tlry Spirit? or where shall I 
" hide myself from thy presence ? If I 
" ascend up into heaven, thou art there : if 
" I shall go to the uttermost parts of the 
" earth, there is thy right hand : if I shall 
" make my bed in the_ deep, thy Spirit is 
" there." Whither then shall any one go ? 
or whither shall he run from him that com- 
prehends all things ? 

28. Let us therefore come to him with 
holiness of heart, lifting up chaste and un- 
defiled hands unto him ; loving our gra- 
cious and merciful Father, who has made 
us to partake of his election. For so it is 
written, " When the Most High divided 
" the nations, when he separated the sons 
" of Adam, he set the bounds of the na- 
" tions, according to the number of his 
" angels : his people Jacob became the 
" portion of the Lord, and Israel the lot of 
" his inheritance." And in another place 
he saith, " Behold, the Lord taketh unto 
" himself a nation out of the midst of the 
" nations, as a man taketh the first-fruits 
" of his floor : and the Most Holy shall 
" come out of that nation." 

29- Wherefore we being the portion of 



46'5 

the Holy One, let us do all those things 
that pertain unto holiness ; fleeing all evil- 
speaking against one another, all filthy and 
impure embraces, together with all drunk- 
enness, youthful lusts, abominable concu- 
piscences, detestable adultery, and execra- 
ble pride. " For God," saith he, " resist- 
" eth the proud, but giveth grace to the 
" humble." Let us therefore hold fast to 
those to whom God has given his grace. 
And let us put on concord, being humble, 
temperate ; free from all whispering and 
detraction ; and justified by our actions, 
not our words. Let our praise be of God, 
not of ourselves ; for God hateth those that 
commend themselves. Let the witness of 
our good actions be given to us of others, 
as it was given to the holy men that went 
before us. Rashness, and arrogance, and 
confidence, belong to them who are ac- 
cursed of God ; but equity, and humility, 
and mildness, to such as are blessed by 
him. 

30. Let us then lay hold of his blessing, 
1 and let us consider what are the ways by 

which we may attain unto it. Let us look 
back upon those things that have happened 
from the beginning. For what was our 
father Abraham blessed ? AVas it not be- 
cause that through faith he wrought righ- 
teousness and truth ? Isaac being fully 
persuaded of what he knew was to come, 
cheerfully yielded himself up for a sacri- 
fice. Jacob with humility departed out 
of his own country, fleeing from his bro- 
ther, and went unto Laban, and served him : 
and so the sceptre of the twelve tribes of 
Israel was given unto him. 

31. Now, what the greatness of this gift 
was, will plainly appear, if we shall take 
the pains distinctly to consider all the parts 
of it. For, from him came the priests and 
Levites ; who all ministered at the altar of 
God. From him came our Lord Jesus 

6 B Christ, 



466 THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



Christ, according to the flesh. From him j 
came the kings, and princes, and rulers, in | 
Judah. Nor were the rest of his tribes in 
any small glory ; God having promised 
that " thy seed (says he) shall be as the 
" stars of heaven/' They are all therefore 
greatly glorified, not for their own sake, 
or for their own works, or for the righ- 
teousness that they themselves wrought, 
but through his will. And we also being 
called by the same will in Christ Jesus, are 
not justified by ourselves, neither by our 
own wisdom, or knowledge, or piety, or 
the works which we have done in the ho- 
liness of our hearts ; but by that faith by 
which God Almighty has justified all men 
from the beginning ; to whom be glory for 
ever and ever. Amen. 

32. What shall we do therefore, bre- 
thren ? Shall we be slothful in well doing, 
and lay aside our charity? God forbid 
that any such things should be done by us. 
But rather let us hasten with all earnestness 
and readiness of mind, to perfect every 
good work. For even the Creator and 
Lord of all things himself rejoices in his 
own works. By his almighty power he 
fixed the heavens, and by his incompre- 
hensible wisdom he adorned them. He 
also divided the earth from the water, with 
which it is encompassed ; and fixed it as a 
secure tower, upon the foundation of his 
own will. He also by his appointment 
commanded all the living creatures that 
are upon it to exist. So likewise the sea, 
and all the creatures that are in it ; having 
first created them, he inclosed them therein 
by his power. And, above all, he with his 
holy and pure hands formed man, the 
most excellent, and, as to his understand- 
ing, truly the greatest of all other creatures, 
the character of his own image. For so 
God says, " Let us make man in our j 
" image, after our own likeness : so God 



" created man, male and female created he 
" them/' And having thus finished all 
these things, he commended all that he had 
made, and blessed them, and said, " In- 
" crease and multiply." We see how all 
righteous men have been adorned with 
good works ; wherefore even the Lord 
himself, having adorned himself with his 
works, rejoiced. Having therefore such 
an example, let us without delay fulfil his 
will ; and with all our strength work the 
work of righteousness. 

33. The good workman with confidence 
receives the bread of his labour ; but the 
sluggish and lazy cannot look him in the 
face that sets him on work. We must there- 
fore be ready and forward in well doing ; 
for from him are all things. And thus he 
foretells us, " Behold, the Lord cometh, and 
" his reward is with him, even before his 
" face, to render to every one according to 
" his work." He warns us therefore be- 
forehand, with all his heart, to this end, 
that we should not be slothful and negli- 
gent in well-doing. Let our boasting there- 
fore, and our confidence, be in God ; let us 
submit ourselves to his will. Let us con- 
sider the whole multitude of his angels, 
how ready they stand to minister unto his 
will. As saith the Scripture, " Thousands 
" of thousands stood before him, and ten 
" thousand times ten thousand ministered 
" unto him. And they cried, saying, Holy 
" holy, holy, is the Lord of Sabaoth ; 
" the whole earth is full of his glory!" 
Wherefore let us also, being conscientiously 
gathered together in concord with one ano- 
ther, as it were with one mouth cry ear- 
nestly unto him, that he would make us 
partakers of his great and glorious pro- 
mises. For he saith, " Eye hath not seen, 
" nor ear heard, neither have entered into 
| " the heart of man, the things which God 
| " has prepared for them that wait for him/' 

34. How 



THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS 



46? 



34. How blessed and wonderful, be- 
loved, are the gifts of God ! Life and im- 
mortality ! Brightness in righteousness ! 
Truth in full assurance ! Faith in confi- 
dence ! Temperance in holiness ! And 
all this has God subjected to our under- 
standings : what therefore shall those things 
be which he has prepared for them that 
wait for him ? The Creator and Father of 
spirits, the Most Holy, he only knows both 
the greatness and beauty of them. Let us 
therefore strive with all earnestness that we 
may be found in the number of those that 
wait for him ; that so we may receive the 
reward which he has promised. But how, 
beloved, shall we do this? We must fix 
our minds by faith toward God, and seek 
those things that are pleasing and accepta- 
ble unto him. We must act conformably 
to his holy will : and follow the way of 
truth, casting off from us all unrighteous- 
ness and iniquity, together with all covet- 
ousness, strife, evil manners, deceit, whis- 
pering, detractions ; all hatred of God, 
pride and boasting, vain-glory and ambi- 
tion ; for they that do these things are 
odious to God ; and not only they that do 
them, but also all such as approve of those 
that do them. For thus saith the Scrip- 
ture, " But unto the wicked God said, 
' What hast thou to do to declare my sta- 
' tutes, or that thou shouldest take my co- 
' venant in thy mouth ; seeing thou hatest 
' instruction, and castest my words be- 
' hind thee ? When thou sawest a thief, 
' then thou consentedst with him ; and 
' hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou 
' givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue 
' frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speak- 
4 est against thy brother ; thou slanderest 
c thine own mother's son. These things 
* hast thou done, and I kept silence ; thou 
4 thoughtest that I was altogether such a 
' one as thyself : but I will reprove thee, 



" and set them in order before thine eyes. 
" Now consider this, ye that forget God, 
" lest I tear you in pieces, and there be 
" none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise, 
" glorifieth me : and to him that disposeth 
" his way aright, will I shew the salvation 
" of God." 

35. This is the way, beloved, in which 
we may find our Saviour, even Jesus Christ, 
the high priest of all our offerings, the de- 
fender and helper of our weakness. By 
him we look up to the highest heavens ; 
and behold, as in a glass, his spotless and 
most excellent visage. By him are the 
eyes of our hearts opened ; by him our 
foolish and darkened understanding re- 
joice th to behold his wonderful light. By 
him would God have us to taste the know- 
ledge of immortality ; " who being the 
" brightness of his glory, is by so much 
" greater than the angels, as he has by 
" inheritance obtained a more excellent 
" name than they." For so it is written, 
" Who maketh his angels spirits, and his 

| ministers a flame of fire." But to his 
I Son, thus saith the Lord, " Thou art my 
! " Son, to-day have I begotten thee. Ask 
j " of me, and I will give thee the heathen 
; " for thine inheritance, and the utmost 
" parts of the earth for thy possession." 
And again he saith unto him, " Sit thou 
" on my right hand, until I make thine 
" enemies thy footstool." But who are 
his enemies ? Even the wicked, and such 
who oppose their own wills to the will of 
j God. 

36. Let us therefore march on, men and 
i brethren, with all earnestness in his holy 
I laws. Let us consider those who fight under 
our earthly governors ; how orderly, how 
readily, and with what exact obedience, 
they perform those things that are com- 
manded them. All are not generals, nor 
icolonels, nor captains, nor inferior officers; 

but 



468 THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



but every one in his respective rank does 
what is commanded him by the king, and 
those who have the authority over him. 
They who are great cannot subsist without 
those that are little ; nor the little without 
the great. But there must be a mixture in 
all things, and then there will be use and 
profit too. Let us, for example, take our 
body : the head without the feet is nothing, 
neither the feet without the head. And 
even the smallest members of our body are 
yet both necessary and useful to the whole 
body. But all conspire together, and are 
subject to one common use, namely, the 
preservation of the whole body. 

37- Let therefore our whole body be 
saved in Jesus Christ : and let every one 
be subject to his neighbour, according to 
the order in which he is placed by the gift 
of God. Let not the strong man despise 
the weak ; and let the weak see that he re- 
verence the strong. Let the rich man distri- 
bute to the necessity of the poor; and let the 
poor bless God that he has given one unto 
him, by whom his want may be supplied. 
Let the wise man shew forth his wisdom, 
not in words, but in good works. Let him 
that is humble not bear witness to himself, 
but let him leave it to another to bear wit- 
ness of him. Let him that is pure in the 
flesh not grow proud of it; knowing that 
it was from another that he received the 
gift of continence. Let us consider there- 
fore, brethren, whereof we are made ; who, 
and what kind of men we came into the 
world, as it were out of a sepulchre, and 
from utter darkness. He that made us, 
and formed us, brought us into his own 
world ; having presented us with his be- 
nefits as soon as we were born. Where- 
fore, having received all these things from 
him, we ought, in every thing, to give 
thanks unto him : to whom be glory for 
ever and ever. Amen. 



38. Foolish and unwise men, who have 
neither prudence nor learning, may mock 
and deride us ; being willing to set up 
themselves in their own conceits. " But 
" what can a mortal man do ? Or what 
" strength is there in him that is made 
" out of the dust?" For it is written, 
" There was no shape before mine eyes ; 
" only I heard a sound and a voice. For 
" what ? Shall man be pure before the 
" Lord ? shall he be blameless in his 
" works ? Behold, he trusteth not in his 
" servants ; and his angels he chargeth with 
" folly. Yea, the heaven is not clean in 
" his sight : how much less they that dwell 
" in houses of clay ? of which also we our- 
" selves were made. He smote them as a. 
" moth ; and from morning even unto the 
" evening they endure not. Because they 
" were not able to help themselves, they 
" perished : he breathed upon them, and 
" they died, because they had no wisdom. 
" Call now, if there be any that will answer 
" thee ; and to which of the angels wilt 
" thou look? For wrath killeth the fool- 
" ish man, and envy slayeth him that is in 
" error. I have seen the foolish taking 
" root ; but, lo, their habitation was pre- 
" sently consumed : their children were 
" far from safety, they perished at the 
" gates of those who were less than them- 
" selves, and there was no man to help 
" them. For what was prepared for them 
" the righteous did eat ; and they shall not 
" be delivered from evil." 

39- Seeing then these things are mani- 
fest unto us, it will behove us to take care 
that, looking into the depths of the divine 
knowledge, we do all things in order, 
whatsoever our Lord hath commanded us 
to do. And particularly that we perform 
our offerings and service to God at their 
appointed seasons ; for these he has com- 
manded to be done, not rashly and disor- 
derly 



THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 469 



derly, but at certain determinate times 
and hours ; and therefore he has ordained 
by his supreme will and authority, both 
where and by what persons they are to be 
performed ; that so all things being piously 
done unto all well-pleasing, they may be 
acceptable unto him. They therefore who 
make their offerings at the appointed sea- 
sons are happy and accepted ; because that 
obeying the commandments of the Lord, 
they are free from sin. And the same care 
must be had of the persons that minister 
unto him. 

40. Let every one of you therefore, bre- 
thren, bless God in his proper station, with 
a good conscience, and with all gravity, 
not exceedino- the rule of his service that is 

O 

appointed to him. The daily sacrifices are 
not offered every where ; nor the peace- 
offerings, nor the sacrifices appointed for 
sins and transgressions ; but only at Jeru- 
salem ; nor in an)' place there, but only at 
the altar before the temple ; that which is 
offered being first diligently examined by 
the high-priest and the other ministers we 
before mentioned. They therefore who 
do any thing which is not agreeable to his 
will, are punished with death. Consider, 
brethren, that by how much the better 
knowledge God has vouchsafed unto us, 
by so much the greater danger are we ex- 
posed to. 

41. The apostles have preached to us 
from our Lord Jesus Christ ; Jesus Christ 
from God. Christ therefore was sent by 
God ; the apostles by Christ : so both were 
orderly sent, according to the will of God. 
For having received their command, and 
being thoroughly assured by the resurrection 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and convinced 
by the word of God, with the fulness of the 
Holy Spirit, they went abroad, publishing 
that the kingdom of God was at hand. 
And thus preaching through countries and 



cities, they appointed the first-fruits of their 
conversions to be bishops and ministers over 
such as should afterwards believe, hav- 
ing first proved them by the Spirit. Nor 
was this any new thing, seeing that long- 
before it was written concerning bishops 
and deacons : for thus saith the Scripture 
in a certain place, " I will appoint their 
" overseers in righteousness, and their mi- 
" nisters in faith." 

42. And what wonder if they, to whom 
such a work was committed by God in 
Christ, established such officers as we be- 
fore mentioned ; when even that blessed 
and faithful servant in all his house, Moses, 
set down in the Holy Scriptures all things 
that were commanded him. Whom also 
all the rest of the prophets followed, bear- 
ing witness with one consent to those things 
that were appointed by him : for he, per- 
ceiving an emulation to arise among the 
tribes concerning the priesthood, and that 
there was a strife about it, which of them 
should be adorned with that glorious 
name ; commanded their twelve captains 
to bring to him twelve rods, every tribe 
being written upon its rod according to its 
name. And he took them and bound them 
together, and sealed them with the seals of 
the twelve princes of the tribes ; and laid 
them up in the tabernacle of witness, upon 
the table of God. And when he had shu 
the door of the tabernacle, he sealed up 
the keys of it, in like manner as he had 
done the rods ; and said unto them, Men 
and brethren, whichsoever tribe shall have 
its rod blossom, that tribe has God chosen 
to perform the office of a priest, and to mi- 
nister unto him in holy things. And when 
the morning was come, he called together 
all Israel, six hundred thousand men ; and 
shewed to their princes the seals ; and 
opened the tabernacle of witness ; and 
brought forth the rods. And the rod of 
6 C Aaron 



470 THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



Aaron was found not only to have blos- 
somed, but also to have fruit upon it. 
What think you, beloved ? Did not Moses 
before know what should happen ? Yes, 
verily ; but to the end there might be no 
division nor tumult in Israel he did in this 
manner, that the name of the true and only 
God might be glorified : to him be honour 
for ever and ever. Amen. 

43. So likewise our apostles knew by 
our Lord Jesus Christ, that there should 
contentions arise on account of the minis- 
try. And therefore having a perfect fore- 
knowledge of this, they appointed persons, 
as we before said, and gave direction, how 
(when they should die) other chosen and 
approved men should succeed in their mi- 
nistry. Wherefore we cannot think that 
those may justly be thrown out of their 
ministry, who were either appointed by 
them, or afterwards chosen by other emi- 
nent men, with the consent of the whole 
church ; and who have with all lowliness 
and innocency ministered to the flock of 
Christ in peace, and without self-interest, 
and were for a long time commended by 
all. For it would be no small sin in us, 
should we cast off those from their minis- 
try, who holily and without blame fulfil 
the duties of it. Blessed are those servants, 
who having finished their course before 
these times, have obtained a fruitful and 
perfect dissolution : for they have no fear 
lest any one should turn them out of the 
place which is now appointed for them. 
But we see how you have put out some 
who have lived reputably among you, from 
the ministry, which by their innocence 
they had adorned. 

44. Ye are contentious brethren, and 
zealous for things that pertain not unto 
salvation. Look into the Holy Scriptures, 
which are the true words of the Holy 
Ghost. Ye know that there is nothing un- 



just or counterfeit written in them. There 
you shall not find that righteous men were 
ever cast off by such as were good them- 
selves. They were persecuted, it is true : 
but it was by the wicked and unjust. They 
were cast into prison ; but they were cast 
in by those that were unholy. They were 
stoned ; but it was by transgressors. They 
were killed ; but by accursed men, and 
such as had taken up an unjust envy against 
them. And all these things they underwent 
gloriously. For what shall we say, bre- 
thren ? Was Daniel cast into the den of 
lions by men fearing God ? Ananias, Aza- 
rias, and Misael, were they cast into the 
fiery furnace by men professing the excel- 
lent and glorious worship of the most High? 
God forbid. What kind of persons then 
were they that did these things ? They were 
men abominable, full of all wickedness ; 
who were incensed to so great a degree, as 
to bring those into sufferings, who with a 
holy and unblameable purpose of mind 
worshipped God ; not knowing that the 
Most High is the protector and defender of 
all such as with a pure conscience serve his 
holy name : to whom be glory for ever and 
ever. Amen. But they who with a full 
persuasion have endured these things, are 
made partakers of glory and honour ; and 
are exalted and lifted up by God in their 
memorial throughout all ages. Amen. 

45. Wherefore it will behove us also, 
brethren, to follow such examples as these ; 
for it is written, " Hold fast to such as are 
" holy ; for they that do so shall be sanc- 
" tified." And again in another place he 
saith, " With the pure shalt thou be pure, 
" (and with the elect thou shalt be elect,) 
" but with the perverse man thou shalt be 
" perverse." Let us therefore join ourselves 
to the innocent and righteous ; for such 
are the elect of God. Wherefore are there 
strifes, and anger, and divisions, and schisms 

an 



THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 471 



and wars among us ? Have we not all one 
God and one Christ ? Is not one Spirit of 
grace poured out upon us all ? Have we 
not one calling in Christ ? Why then do 
we rend and tear in pieces the members of 
Christ, and raise seditions against our own 
body 1 and are come to such a height of 
madness as to forget that we were members 
one of another ? Remember the words of 
our Lord Jesus, how he said, " Woe to 
" that man by whom offences come : it 
" were better for him that he had never 
" been born, than that he should have of- 
" fended one of my elect. It were better 
" for him that a millstone should be tied 
" about his neck, and he should be cast 
" into the sea, than that he should offend 
" one of my little ones." Your schism has 
perverted many, has discouraged many ; it 
has caused diffidence in many, and grief 
in us all. And yet your sedition continues 
still. 

46. Take the epistle of the blessed Paul 
the apostle into your hands ; what was it 
that he wrote to you at his first preaching 
the gospel among you ? Verily he did by 
the Spirit admonish you concerning him- 
self, and Cephas, and Apollos, because that 
even then ye had begun to fall into parties 
and factions among yourselves. Neverthe- 
less, your partiality then led you into a 
much less sin ; forasmuch as ye placed 
your affections upon apostles, men of emi- 
nent reputation in the church ; and upon 
another, who was greatly tried and ap- 
proved of by them. But consider, we 
pray you, w r ho were they that have now 
led you astray ; and lessened that brotherly 
love that was so eminent among you ? It 
is a shame, my beloved, yea, a very great 
shame, and unworthy of your Christian 
profession, to hear, that the most firm and 
ancient church of the Corinthians should 
by one or two persons be led into a sedi- 



tion against its ministers. And this report 
is come not only to us, but to those also 
that differ from us. Insomuch that the 
name of the Lord is blasphemed through 
your folly ; and even ye yourselves are 
brought into danger by it 

47. Let us therefore with all haste put 
an end to this sedition ; and let us fall 
down before the Lord, and beseech him 
with tears that he would be favourably re- 
conciled to us, and restore us again to a 
seemly and holy course of brotherly love. 
For this is the gate of righteousness opening 
unto life : as it is written, " Open unto me 
" the gates of righteousness ; I will go in 
" unto them, and will praise the Lord. 
" This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous 

. © ' © 

" shall enter into it." Although, therefore, 
many gates are opened, yet this gate of 
righteousness is that gate in Christ, at which 
blessed are all they that enter in, and di- 
rect their way in holiness and righteous- 
ness, doing all things without disorder. 
Let a man be faithful ; let him be powerful 
in the utterance of knowledge ; let him be 
wise in making an exact judgment of 
words ; let him be pure in all his actions : 
but still by how much the more he seems 
to be above others, by reason of these things, 
by so much the more will it behove him 
to be humble-minded ; and to seek what is 
profitable to all men, and not his own ad- 
vantage. 

48. He that has the love that is in Christ, 
let him keep the commandments of Christ. 
For who is able to express the obligation of 
the love of God ? What man is sufficient 
to declare, as is fitting, the excellency of 
its beauty ? The height to which charity 
leads is inexpressible. Charity unites us 
to God ? " Charity covers the multitude of 
" sins : charity endures all things, is long- 
" suffering in all things." There is nothing 
base and sordid in charity : charity lifts not 

itself 



472 THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



itself up above others ; admits of no divi- 
sions ; is not seditious ; but does all things 
in peace and concord. By charity were 
all the elect of God made perfect ; without 
it nothing is pleasing and acceptable in the 
sight of God. Through charity did the 
Lord join us unto himself, whilst for the 
love that he bore towards us, our Lord 
Jesus Christ gave his oAvn blood for us, by 
the will of God; his flesh, for our flesh; 
his soul, for our souls. 

49. Ye see, beloved, how great and won- 
derful a thing charity is ; and how that no 
expressions are sufficient to declare its per- 
fection. But who is fit to be found in it ? 
Even such only as God shall vouchsafe to 
make so. Let us therefore pray to him, 
and beseech him, that we may be worthy 
of it ; that so we may live in charity, be- 
ing unblameable, without human propen- 
sities, without respect to persons. All the 
ages of the world, from Adam even to this 
day, are passed away ; but they who have 
been made perfect in love, have by the 
grace of God obtained a place among the 
righteous, and shall be made manifest in 
the judgment of the kingdom of Christ. 
For it is written, " Enter into thy cham- 
" bers for a little space, till my anger and 
" indignation shall pass away ; and I will 
" remember the good day, and will raise 
" you up out of your graves/' Happy 
then shall we be, beloved, if we shall have 
fulfilled the commandments of God in the 
unity of love ; that so, through love, our 
sins maybe forgiven us. For so it is writ- 
ten, " Blessed are they whose iniquities 
" are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 
" Blessed is the man to whom the Lord im- 
" puteth no sin, and in whose mouth there 
" is no guile/' Now this blessing is ful- 
filled in those who are chosen by God, 
throuoh Jesus Christ our Lord : to whom 
elory for ever and ever. Amen. 



50. Let us, therefore, as many as have 
transgressed by any of the suggestions of 
the adversary, beg God's forgiveness. And 
as for those who have been the heads of 
the sedition and faction among you, let 
them look to the common end of our hope. 
For as many as are endued with fear 
and charity, would rather they themselves 
should fall into trials than their neighbours ; 
and chuse to be themselves condemned, ra- 
ther than that the good and just charity de- 
livered to us should suffer. For it is seemly 
for a man to confess wherein he has trans- 
gressed ; and not to harden his heart, as 
the hearts of those were hardened who 
raised up sedition against Moses the servant 
of God : whose punishment was manifest 
unto all men ; for they went down alive 
into the grave, death swallowed them up. 
Pharaoh and his host, and all the rulers ol 
Egypt, their chariots also, and their horse- 
men, were for no other cause drowned in 
the bottom of the Red Sea, and perished, 
but because they hardened their foolish 
hearts, after so many signs done in the 
land of Egypt, by Moses the servant of 
God. 

5 1 . Beloved, God is not indignant of any 
thing ; nor does he demand any thing of 
us, but that we should confess our sins 
unto him. For so says the holy David, 
" I will confess unto the Lord, and it shall 
" please him better than a young bullock 
" that hath horns and hoofs. Let the poor 
see it, and be glad." And again he saith, 
" Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise, 
" and pay thy vows unto the Most High- 
" est. And call upon me in the day of 
" trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou 
" shalt. glorify me. The sacrifice of God 
" is a broken spirit/' 

52. Ye know, beloved, ye know full 
well, the Holy Scriptures ; and have tho- 
roughly searched into the oracles of God : 



THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 473 



call them therefore to your remembrance. 
For when Moses went up into the mount, 
and tarried there forty days and forty 
nio-hts in fasting; and humiliation, God said 
unto him, " Arise, Moses, get thee down 
" quickly from hence ; for thy people, 
" whom thou brouditest out of the land 
" of Egypt, have committed wickedness : 
" they have soon transgressed the way that 
" I commanded them, and have made 
" to themselves graven images. And the 
" Lord said unto him, I have spoken unto 
" thee several times, sajdng, I have seen 
" this people, and, behold, it is a stiff- 
" necked people ; let me therefore destroy 
" them, and put out their names from un- 
" der heaven. And I will make unto thee 
" a great and a wonderful nation, that shall 
" be much larger than this. But Moses 
" said, Not so, Lord : forgive now this 
" people their sin ; or, if thou wilt not, 
" blot me also out of the book of the liv- 
" ing." 0 admirable charity ! O insuper- 
able perfection ! The servant speaks freely 
to his Lord ; he beseeches him either to for- 
give the people, or to destroy him together 
with them. 

53. Who is there among you that is ge- 
nerous ? who that is compassionate ? who 
that has any charity ? Let him say, If this 
sedition, this contention, and these schisms, 
be upon my account, I am ready to de- 
part ; to go away whithersoever ye please, 
and do whatsoever ye shall command me ; 
only let the flock of Christ be in peace, 
with the elders that are set over it. He 
that shall do this, shall get to himself a very 
great honour in the Lord ; and there is no 
place but what will be ready to receive 
him : " For the earth is the Lord's, and the 
" fulness thereof/' These things they who 
have their conversation towards God not 
to be repented of, both have done, and will 
always be ready to do. 



54. Nay, and even the Gentiles them- 
selves have given us examples of this kind. 
For we read, how many kings and princes, 
in times of pestilence, being warned by 
their oracles, have given themselves unto 
death ; that by their own blood they might 
deliver their country from destruction. 
Others have forsaken their cities, that so 
they might put an end to the seditions of 
them. We know how many among our- 
selves have given up themselves unto bonds, 
that thereby they might free others from 
them. Others have sold themselves into 
bondage, that they might feed their bre- 
thren with the price of themselves. And 
even many women, being strengthened by 
the grace of God, have done many glo- 
rious and manly things on such occasions. 
The blessed Judith, when her city was be- 
sieged, desired the elders that they would 
suffer her to go into the camp of their ene- 
mies : and she went out, exposing herself 
to danger, for the love she bare to her coun- 
try and her people that were besieged ; and 
the Lord delivered Holofernes into the 
hands of a woman. Nor did Esther, be- 
ing perfect in faith, expose herself to any 
less hazard, for the delivery of the twelve 
tribes of Israel, in danger of being destroy- 
ed. For by fasting and humbling herself 
she entreated the great Maker of all things, 
the God of spirits ; so that beholding the 
humility of her soul, he delivered the peo- 
ple for whose sake she was in peril. 

55. Wherefore let us also pray for such 
as are fallen into sin ; that being endued 
with humility and moderation, they may 
submit not to us, but to the will of God. 
For by this means they shall obtain a fruit- 
ful and perfect remembrance, with mercy, 
both in our prayers to God, and in our 
mention of them before his saints. Let us 
receive correction, at which no man ought 
to repine. Beloved, the reproof and the 

6 D correction 



474 THE EPISTLE OF ST. CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS. 



correction which we exercise towards one 
another is good, and exceedingly profit- 
able ; for it unites us the more closely to 
the will of God. For so says the Holy 
Scripture, " The Lord corrected me, but 
" he did not deliver me over unto death : 
" for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, 
" and scourgeth every son whom he re- 
" ceiveth. The righteous (saith he) shall 
" instruct me in mercy, and reprove me : 
" but let not the oil of sinners make fat my 
" head." And again he saith, " Happy 
" is the man whom God correcteth : there- 
" fore despise not thou the chastening of 
" the Almighty. For he maketh sore, and 
" bindeth up ; he woundeth, and his hands 
" make whole. He shall deliver thee in 
" six troubles ; yea, in seven there shall no 
" evil touch thee. In famine he shall re- 
" deem thee from death ; and in war from 
" the power of the sword. Thou shalt be 
" hid from the scourge of the tongue ; nei- 
" ther shalt thou be afraid of destruction 
" when it cometh. Thou shalt laugh at the 
wicked and sinners ; neither shalt thou 
44 be afraid of the beasts of the earth. The 
" wild beasts shall be at peace with thee. 
" Then shalt thou know that thy house 
" shall be in peace ; and the habitation of 
" thy tabernacle shall not err. Thou shalt 
" know also that thy seed shall be great, 
" and thy offspring as the grass of the earth. 
" Thou shalt come to thy grave as the ripe 
" corn, that is taken in due time : like as 
" a shock of corn cometh in in its season." 
You see, beloved, how there shall be a de- 
fence to those that are corrected of the 
Lord. For being a good instructor, he is 
willing to admonish us by his holy disci- 
pline. 

56. Do ye therefore, who laid the first 
foundation of this sedition, submit your- 
selves unto your ministers ; and be instruct- 
ed unto repentance, bending the knees of 



your hearts. Learn to be subject, laying 
aside all proud and arrogant boasting of 
your tongues. For it is better for you to 
be found little, and approved in the sheep- 
fold of Christ, than to seem to yourselves 
better than others, and be cast out of his 
fold. For thus speaks the excellent and 
all-virtuous Wisdom, " Behold, I will pour 
" out the word of my Spirit upon you, I 
" will make known my speech unto you. 
" Because I called and ye would not hear, 
" I stretched out my hands and ye regarded 
" not ; but ye have set at nought all my 
" counsel, and would none of my reproof : 
" I will also laugh at your calamity, and 
" mock when your fear cometh ; when 
" your fear cometh as a desolation, and 
" your destruction as a whirlwind, when 
" distress and anguish cometh upon you. 
" Then shall ye call upon me, but I will 
" not hear you : the wicked shall seek me, 
" but they shall not find me ; for that 
" they hated knowledge, and did not seek 
" the fear of the Lord. They would not 
" hearken unto my counsel ; they despised 
" all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat 
" of the fruit of their own ways, and be 
" filled with their own wickedness." 

57. Now, God, the inspector of all things, 
the Father of spirits, and the Lord of all 
flesh, who hath chosen our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and us by him, to be his peculiar 
people, grant to every soul of man that 
calleth upon his glorious and holy name, 
faith, fear, peace, long-suffering, patience, 
temperance, holiness, and sobriety, unto 
all well-pleasing in his sight ; through our 
high-priest and protector Jesus Christ ; by 
whom be glory, and majesty, and power, 
and honour, unto Him, now, and for ever- 
more. Amen. 

58. The messengers whom we have sent 
unto you, Claudius Ephebus, and Valerius 
Bito, with Fortunatus, send back to us 

again 



HYMNS. 



4/5 



again with all speed in peace and with joy, 
that they may the sooner acquaint us with 
your peace and concord, so much prayed 
for and desired by us ; and that we may 
rejoice in your good order. 

59. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ 



be with you, and with all that are any 
where called by God through him : to 
whom be honour, and glory, and might, 
and majestjr, and eternal dominion, by 
Christ Jesus, from everlasting to everlast- 
ing. Amen. 



HYMNS. 



THE NATIVITY. 



1 4 LL glory to God in the sky, 

And peace upon earth be restor'd ! 
O Jesus, exalted on high, 

Appear our omnipotent Lord ! 
Who meanly in Bethlehem born, 

Didst stoop to redeem a lost race, 
Once more to thy people return, 

And reign in thy kingdom of grace. 

2 When thou in our flesh didst appear, 

All nature acknowledged thy birth, 
Arose the acceptable year, 

And heaven was open'd on earth : 
Receiving its Lord from above, 

The world was united to bless 
The Giver of concord and love, 

The Prince and the Author of peace. 

3 O would'st thou again be made known ! 

Again in thy Spirit descend ! 
And set up in each of thine own 

A kingdom that never shall end ! 
Thou only art able to bless, 

And make the glad nations obey, 
And bid the dire enmity cease, 

And bow the whole world to thy sway. 

4 Come then to thy servants again, 

Who long thy acceptance to know ; 
Thy quiet and peaceable reign, 

In mercy establish below : 
All sorrow before thee shall fly, 

And anger and hatred be o'er ; 
And envy and malice shall die, 

And discord afflict us no more. 

5 No horrid alarum of war, 

Shall break our eternal repose ; 
No sound of the trumpet is there, 

Where Jesus's Spirit o'erflows : 
Appeas'd by the charms of thy grace, 

We all shall in amity join ; 
And kindly each other embrace, 

And love with a passion like thine. 



HOSANNA TO CHRISI 



1 FTOSANNA to the royal Son 

Of David's ancient line ! 
His nature's two, his person one, 
Mysterious and divine. 

2 The root of David here we find 

And offspring is the same ; 
Eternity and time are join'd 
In our Emanuel's name. 

3 Bless'd he that comes to wretched men, 

With peaceful news from heav'n ! 
Hosannas of the highest strain 
To Christ the Lord be giv'n ! 

4 Let mortals ne'er refuse to take 

Th' Hosanna on their tongues, 
Lest rocks and stones should rise, and break 
Their silence into songs. 

'The Excellency of the Christian Religion. 

1 T ET everlasting glories crown 

Thy head, my Saviour and my Lord ; 
Thy hands have brought salvation down, 
And writ the blessings of thy word. 

2 What if we trace the globe around, 

And search from Britain to Japan, 
There shall be no religion found 
So just to God, so safe to man. 

3 In vain the trembling conscience seeks 

Some solid ground to rest upon ; 
With long despair the spirit breaks, 
Till we apply to Christ alone. 

4 How well thy blessed truths agree ! 

How wise and holy thy commands ! 
Thy promises how firm they be ! 

flow firm our hope and comfort stands 1 

5 Not the feign'd fields of heath'nish bliss 

Could raise such pleasures in the mind ; 
Nor does the Turkish Paradise 
Pretend to joys so well refin'd. 

6 Should all the forms that men devise 

Assault my faith with treach'rous art, 
I'll call them vanity and lies, 

And bind the gospel to my heart. 



( 476 ) 



THE LAST JUDGMENT. 



1 Pet iv. 7. The end of all things is at hand : be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 

(See the 50th Psalm.) 



1 

HPHE Lord, the Sov'reign, sends his summons forth, 
Calls the South Nations, and awakes the North ; 
From East to West the sounding order's spread, 
Thro' distant worlds and regions of the dead : 
No more shall Atheists mock his long delay ; 
His vengeance sleeps no more : Behold the day ! 
2 

Behold the Judge descends ; his guards are nigh, 
Tempest and fire attend him down the sky: 

Heav'n, earth, and hell, draw near ; let all things come 
To hear his justice, and the Sinner's doom; 

But gather first my Saints, (the Judge commands) 
Bring them, ye angels, from their distant lands. 
3 

Behold my cov'nant stands for ever good, 
Seal'd by th' eternal Sacrifice in blood, 

And sign'd with all their names ; the Greek, the Jew, 
That paid the ancient worship or the new. 

There's no distinctionhere : Come, spread their thrones, 
And near me seat my fav'rites and my sons. 
4 

I their almighty Saviour, and their God, 

I am their Judge : ye Heav'ns proclaim abroad 

My just eternal sentence, and declare 

Those awful truths that sinners dread to hear ; 

Sinners in Zion tremble and retire ; 
I doom the painted hypocrite to fire. 

5 

Not for the want of goats or bullocks slain 

Do I condemn thee ; bulls and goats are vain 
Without the flames of love : in vain the store 



Of brutal offerings that were mine before ; 
Mine are the tamer beasts and savage breed, 

Flocks, herds, and fields, & forests where thev feed, 
6 

If I were hungry, would I ask thee food ? 

When did I thirst, or drink thy bullock's blood? 
Can I be flatter'd with thy cringing bows, 

Thy solemn chatt'rings, and fantastic vows ? 
Are my eyes charm'd thy vestments to behold, 

Glaring in gems, and gay in woven gold 1 

7 

Unthinking wretch ! how could'st thou hope to please 
A God, a Spirit, with such toys as these ? 

While with my grace and statutes on thy tongue 
Thou lov'st deceit, and dost thy brother wrong, 

In vain to pious forms thy zeal pretends ; 

Thieves and adult'rers are thy chosen friends. 

8 

Silent I waited with long-suffering love, 

But didst thou hope that I should ne'er reprove ? 

And cherish such an impious thought within, 
That God the righteous would indulge thy sin ? 

Behold my terrors now ; my thunders roll, 
And thy own crimes affright thy guilty soul. 
9 

Sinners, awake betimes ! ye fools, be wise ; 

Awake before the dreadful morning rise ; 
Change your vain thoughts, your crooked ways amend : 

Fly to the Saviour, make the Judge your friend ; 
Lest like a lion his last vengeance tear 

Your trembling souls, and no deliv'rer near. 



FINIS. 



PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY HENRY FISHER, LONDON. 



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